ADVANCED

LEVEL
READING
LESSON 2
Nội dung: Dạng bài Matching
(1) Locating information,
(2) Matching features,
(3) Matching sentence endings

1
I. LOCATING INFORMATION
1. Mẫu câu hỏi

The Reading Passage above has five paragraphs, A-E.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet

NB. You may use any letter more than once.

1. visual evidence of the gecko’s ability to resist water

2. a question that is yet to be answered by the researchers

3. the method used to calculate the gripping power of geckos

4. the researcher’s opinion of the gecko’s gripping ability

5. a mention of the different environments where geckos can be found

6. the contrast between Stark’s research and the work of other researchers

7. the definition of a scientific term

2. Thông tin chung

Với dạng bài này, người học cần tìm vị trí của một ý tưởng hoặc cụm thông tin trong bài đọc.
Thứ tự câu hỏi không theo thứ tự bài đọc.

Thông thường, nội dung câu hỏi dạng Locating information là một cụm danh từ, tổng hợp
một thông tin trong bài đọc.

Ví dụ:

Câu hỏi: the difference between how different age groups perceive news

Nội dung trong bài đọc: In her current report on the topic, she states that, for the younger
generation, news is largely about convenience and being social. For the older generation,
however, motivation is greatly linked to a sense of duty and habit.

Nội dung trong câu hỏi (Sự khác biệt giữa cách mà các nhóm tuổi khác nhau nhìn nhận về
tin tức) đã tóm tắt thông tin trong bài đọc (đối với người trẻ, bản chất của tin tức là sự tiện
lợi và sự hòa nhập với xác hội; nhưng đối với thế hệ già, động lực đọc tin liên quan chủ yếu
đến trách nhiệm và thói quen).

Như vậy, người học cần thực hiện hai công việc:

• Liên kết các từ khóa trong câu hỏi với nội dung được paraphrased tương ứng trong

2
 bài đọc.

Trong ví dụ trên, các từ khóa được paraphrased lần lượt là “different age groups” →
“the younger generation”, “the older generation”; “perceive” → “for”, “is largely about”.

• Tổng hợp đoạn thông tin trong bài đọc và liên kết với nội dung chủ đạo trong cụm
danh từ ở câu hỏi.

Danh từ chính trong câu hỏi là “difference” (sự khác biệt). Như vậy, nội dung chủ đạo
của đoạn thông tin cần tìm là “sự khác biệt”. Đoạn thông tin sẽ đề cập đến các xu
hướng khác nhau trong cách nhìn nhận về tin tức của mọi người ở các nhóm tuổi.

3. Phương pháp làm bài

Bước 1: Tìm vị trí thông tin trong bài đọc thông qua từ khóa.

Người học xác định 3 loại từ khóa:

• Từ khóa khó thay thế

• Từ khóa dễ thay thế

• Từ khóa chìm

và dự đoán một số cách diễn đạt khác của các từ khóa dễ thay thế và từ khóa chìm.

Sau đó, người học tìm thông tin trong bài dựa vào các suy đoán của bản thân với từ khóa.

Bước 2: Kiểm tra lại thông tin bằng cách đối chiếu nội dung chính của thông tin trong câu
hỏi và trong đoạn thông tin tìm được trong bài đọc.

Với dạng bài locating information, việc tìm và lựa chọn từ khóa không đủ để người học lựa
chọn đáp án chính xác. Trong bài đọc có thể có nhiều đoạn văn chứa toàn bộ các từ khóa
trong câu hỏi, nhưng không thể hiện đúng trọng tâm thông tin.

Vì vậy, người học cần nắm được nội dung chủ đạo của đề bài và liên kết nội dung đó với
đoạn thông tin.

Ví dụ:

Với thông tin sau trong đề bài: the difference between how different age groups perceive news

Nếu người học chỉ tìm các từ khóa different age groups, perceive, và news, người học sẽ tìm
được hai đoạn thông tin dưới đây:

Đoạn A: … In recent years, there has been growing concern by researchers and indeed the
older generation that the younger generation are somewhat disengaged from the news,
and as a result have a very narrow view of the world around them...

Đoạn C: … In her current report on the topic, she states that, for the younger generation, news

3
is largely about convenience and being social. For the older generation, however, motivation
is greatly linked to a sense of duty and habit...

Nếu chỉ tập trung vào các từ khóa, người học sẽ lựa chọn đáp án A. Tuy nhiên, nếu đọc hiểu
kỹ thông tin trọng tâm trong đề bài (difference - sự khác biệt), người học sẽ thấy rõ: thông
tin ở đoạn A chỉ nhắc đến sự lo lắng của thế hệ trước về cách người trẻ nhìn nhận về tin tức,
không hề đề cập đến sự khác biệt trong cách nhìn nhận. Trong khi đó, thông tin ở đoạn C chỉ
rõ khác biệt này (người trẻ coi tin tức là sự tiện nghi và phương tiện xã hội, còn người già coi
đó là một thói quen và trách nhiệm).

Một số từ khóa chỉ nội dung chủ đạo của đoạn thông tin
• reference: sự nhắc đến từ khóa này không quan trọng - thông tin xuất hiện trong
bài đọc là thỏa mãn từ khóa.
• difference: sự khác biệt bài đọc thông thường sẽ chỉ ra các trường hợp khác nhau
để làm rõ sự khác biệt.
Một số dấu hiệu thường gặp: while, meanwhile, however, compared to, in comparison
with, on the other hand, …
• description: phần mô tả
• reason/explanation/why: giải thích lý do và nguồn gốc
Một số dấu hiệu thường gặp: come from, explain, arise from, because, due to, …
• suggestion: gợi ý bài đọc đưa ra các khả năng có thể xảy ra.
Một số dấu hiệu thường gặp: could, may, might, perhaps, probably, …
• comparison: so sánh
Một số dấu hiệu thường gặp: compared to, in comparison with, as opposed to, than,
instead of, …
• implication: ẩn ý
Một số dấu hiệu thường gặp: this means, could, may, might, …
• the way/how: phương thức, cách làm
Một số dấu hiệu thường gặp: by, by means of, …
• example: ví dụ (có tên đối tượng cụ thể)
• estimate: ước lượng (có số liệu)

4
4. Ứng dụng thực hành

How Geckos Cope With Wet Feet

A. Geckos are remarkable little lizards, clinging to almost any dry surface, and Alyssa
Stark, from the University of Akron, US, explains that they appear to be equally happy
scampering through tropical rainforest canopies as they are in urban settings. A
lot of gecko studies look at the very small adhesive structures on their toes to
understand how the system works at the animal’s grip surfaces with microscopic
hairs on the soles of their feet, which make close enough contact to be attracted to
the surface by the minute forces between atoms.

B. However, she and her colleagues Timothy Sullivan and Peter Niewiarowski were
curious about how the lizards cope on surfaces in their natural habitat. Explaining
that previous studies had focused on the reptiles clinging to artificial dry surfaces,
Stark says ‘We know they are in tropical environments that probably have a lot of
rain and geckos don’t suddenly fall out of the trees when it’s wet.’ Yet, the animals
do seem to have trouble getting a grip on smooth, wet, artificial surfaces, sliding
down wet vertical glass after several steps. The team decided to find out how
geckos with wet feet cope on both wet and dry surfaces.

C. First, they had to find out how well their geckos clung onto glass with dry feet.
Fitting a tiny harness around the lizard’s pelvis and gently lowering the animal onto
a plate of smooth glass, Stark and Sullivan allowed the animal to become well
attached before connecting the harness to a tiny motor and gently pulling the lizard
until it came unstuck. The geckos hung on tenaciously, and only came unstuck
at forces of around 20N – about 20 times their own body weight. “In my view, the
gecko attachment system is over – designed’, says Stark.

D. Next, the trio sprayed the glass plate with a midst of water and re-tested the lizards,
but this time the animals had problems holding tight. The droplets were interfering
with the lizards’ attachment mechanism, but it wasn’t clear how. And when the
team immersed the geckos in a bath of room – temperature water with a smooth
glass bottom, the animals were completely unable to anchor themselves to the
smooth surface. ‘The toes are super – hydrophobic’, (i.e. water repellant) explains
Stark, who could see a silvery bubble of air around their toes. But, they were unable
to displace the water around their feet to make the tight contact that usually keeps
geckos in place.

E. Then the team tested the lizard’s adhesive forces on the dry surface when their feet
had been soaking for 90 minutes, and found that the lizards could barely hold on,
detaching when they were pulled with a force roughly equalling their own weight.
‘That might be the sliding behaviour that we see when the geckos climb vertically

5
 up misted glass’, says Stark. So, geckos climbing on wet surfaces with damp feet
are constantly on the verge of slipping and Stark adds that when the soggy lizards
were faced with the misted and immersed horizontal surfaces, they slipped as soon
as the rig started pulling. Therefore, geckos can walk on wet surfaces, as long as
their feet are reasonably dry. However, as soon as their feet get wet, they are barely
able to hang on; it takes geckos to recover from a drenching.

(Source: Official Guide for IELTS, p.61)

The Reading Passage above has five paragraphs, A-E.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet

NB. You may use any letter more than once.

1. visual evidence of the gecko’s ability to resist water

2. a question that is yet to be answered by the researchers

3. the method used to calculate the gripping power of geckos

4. the researcher’s opinion of the gecko’s gripping ability

5. a mention of the different environments where geckos can be found

6. the contrast between Stark’s research and the work of other researchers

7. the definition of a scientific term

6
II. MATCHING FEATURES
1. Mẫu câu hỏi

Questions 1-5

Look at the following statements and the list of researchers below. Match each statement
with the correct researcher, A-C.

Write the correct letter, A-C, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

NB. You may use any letter more than once.

A Pagel

B Lieberman

C Gray

1. We are able to recognise certain words used by people in other cultures.

2. Regardless of what happens in the world, there appear to be fixed rules that govern
the way words alter over time.

3. Words that don’t follow a standard pattern will remain that way if they are used often.

4. Certain words have kept a similar sound across many years and many countries.

5. We focused on the historical changes that have occurred in one particular language.

2. Thông tin chung

Dạng bài Matching features yêu cầu người học nối tên người/đối tượng với các ý kiến, lý
thuyết, hoặc sự thật, dựa vào thông tin trong bài đọc. Các câu hỏi không được sắp xếp theo
thứ tự bài đọc.

3. Phương pháp làm bài

Bước 1: Đọc hiểu các câu hỏi và gạch dưới các từ khóa chính trong câu. Dự đoán một số
cách paraphrase của các từ khóa trong câu.

Ví dụ: If a person takes part in voluntary activities, it is good for the larger area in which
they live.

Dự đoán một số cách paraphrase:

• takes part in join in; participate in; be a part of…

7
 • voluntary volunteer; community work/service …

• good beneficial; positive impact …

• the larger area in which they live the community; the neighborhood; society …

Lưu ý: người học nên đọc toàn bộ câu hỏi thay vì chỉ đọc một câu.

Bước 2: Định vị toàn bộ tên người/tên đối tượng cần tìm trong bài đọc.

Thông thường, tên người và đối tượng không bị thay đổi trong bài.

Bước 3: Đọc các quan điểm, lý thuyết hoặc sự thật liên quan đến người/đối tượng đã định
vị. Đối chiếu với nội dung trong câu hỏi và các phần paraphrased đã dự đoán để lựa chọn
đáp án chính xác.

• Rachel Jones, a young volunteer, says, ‘It’s terrible that the government isn’t doing
enough to help refugees.’ Chỉ có 1 từ khóa liên quan, không phải đáp án.

• Volunteering can have a beneficial effect on people. Clare Coleman agrees: ‘It can
make people feel less depressed.’ Không đủ từ khóa, không phải đáp án.

• Paula Orman believes that more people are viewing voluntary work as a valuable
activity which helps society in general. Có 3 từ khóa liên quan. Tổng quan câu văn
khớp về ý nghĩa Paula Orman là đáp án.

4. Ứng dụng thực hành

Maths shows why words persist over time

In a finding that parallels the evolution of genes, researchers have shown that the more frequently
a word is used, the less likely it is to change over long periods of time.

The question of why some words evolve rapidly through time while others are preserved
– often with the same meaning in multiple languages has long plagued linguists. Two
independent teams of researchers have tackled this question from different angles, each
arriving at a remarkably similar conclusion.

“The frequency with which specific words are used in everyday language exerts a general
and law-like influence on their rates of evolution,” writes Mark Pagel, author of one of two
studies published this week.

Anyone who has tried to learn English will have been struck by its excess of stubbornly
irregular verbs, which render grammatical rules unreliable. The past tense of regular verbs
is formed by adding the suffix ‘-ed’, but this luxury is not afforded to their irregular kin. Over
time, however, some irregular verbs ‘regularise’. For instance, the past tense of ‘help’ used
to be ‘holp’, but now it is ‘helped.

8
Mathematician Erez Lieberman, from Harvard University in Massachusetts, US, performed
a quantitative study of the rate at which English verbs such as ‘help’ have become more
regular with time. Of the list of 177 irregular verbs they took from Old English, only 98
are still irregular today. Amazingly, the changes they observed obey a very precise
mathematical description: the half-life of an irregular verb is proportional to the square
root of its frequency. In other words, they found that the more an irregular verb is used, the
longer it will remain irregular.

A separate group of academics, led by evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel from the University
of Reading, in the UK, used a statistical modelling technique to study the evolution of
words from 87 different Indo-European languages.

“Throughout its 8,000-year history, all Indo-European-language speakers have used a

related sound to communicate the idea of ‘two’ objects – duo, due, deux, dos, etc.” Pagel
commented. “But,” he adds, “there are many different and unrelated sounds for the idea of,
for example, a bird – uccello, oiseau, pouli, pajaro, vogel, etc.”

Before now, however, nobody had proposed a mechanism for why some words should
evolve more quickly than others. According to Pagel, “our research helps us to understand
why we can still understand bits of Chaucer [a medieval poet]” and points out that this likely
explains “why we can instinctively recognise words in other Indo-European languages, just
from their sounds”.

Psychologist and language expert Russell Gray, from the University of Auckland in New
Zealand, was impressed by both findings. “Despite all the vagaries and contingencies of
human history, it seems that there are remarkable regularities in the processes of language
change,” he commented.

(Source: Official Guide for IELTS, p.69)

9
Questions 1-5

Look at the following statements and the list of researchers below. Match each statement
with the correct researcher, A-C.

Write the correct letter, A-C, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

NB. You may use any letter more than once.

A Pagel
B Lieberman
C Gray

1. We are able to recognise certain words used by people in other cultures.

2. Regardless of what happens in the world, there appear to be fixed rules that govern
the way words alter over time.

3. Words that don’t follow a standard pattern will remain that way if they are used
often.

4. Certain words have kept a similar sound across many years and many countries.

5. We focused on the historical changes that have occurred in one particular language.

10
III. MATCHING SENTENCE ENDINGS
Người học sử dụng phương pháp tương tự các dạng bài trên.

Khi làm bài, người học nên đọc nửa câu đầu để tìm vị trí trước, sau đó xác định một số thông
tin hợp lý và đối chiếu với đáp án (thay vì đọc toàn bộ đáp án, sẽ tiêu tốn thời gian làm bài).

Ứng dụng thực hành

Aesop’s fable ‘The crow and the pitcher’ more fact than fiction

New research indicates that rocks, members of the crow family, are able to solve complex
problems using tools.

In Aesop’s fictional fable ‘The crow and the pitcher’, a thirsty crow uses stones to raise the
level of water in a jug to quench its thirst. A recent study demonstrates that rocks, birds
belonging to the corvid [or crow] family, are in fact able to solve complex problems using
tools and can easily master the same technique used in the story.

Christopher Bird of the University of Cambridge, who led the study, highlighted the importance
of the findings, stating: ‘Corvids are remarkably intelligent, and in many ways rival the great
apes in their physical intelligence and ability to solve problems. The only other animal known
to complete a similar task is the orang-utan. This is remarkable considering their brain is so
different to the great apes. Although it has been speculated in folklore, empirical tests are
needed to examine the extent of their intelligence and how they solve problems.’

In their first experiment, the researchers varied the height of the water in a tube and the
four rocks, which were the subject of the research, used stones to raise the water level to
reach a worm floating on top. The clever birds proved very adept and were highly successful,
regardless of the starting level of the water or the number of the stones needed. Two of the
birds were successful on their first attempt in raising the water to the correct height whilst
the other two birds needed a second try.

In addition to the speed with which they completed the task, the birds were also highly
accurate in their ability, adding the exact number of stones needed to reach the worm.
Furthermore, rather than attempting to reach the worm after each stone was dropped in, they
apparently estimated the number needed from the outset, and waited until the appropriate
water level was reached before dipping their beaks into the tube.

In the second experiment, the rocks were presented with stones that varied in size. Here, the
rocks selected larger stones over smaller ones (though they didn’t do this straight away).
The scientists speculate that the birds quickly realised that the larger stones displaced more
water, and they were thus able to obtain the reward more quickly than by using small stones.

According to the team, in the final experiment, the rocks recognised that sawdust could not
be manipulated in the same manner as water. Therefore, when presented with the choice
between a tube half-filled with either sawdust or water, rooks dropped the pebbles into the
11
 Young children’s sense of identity

tube containing water and not the sawdust.

Despite the fact that the study clearly demonstrates the flexible nature of tool use in rocks,
they are not believed to use tools in the wild. ‘Wild tool use appears to be dependent on
motivation,’ remarked Bird. ‘Rooks do not use tools in the wild because they do not need
to, not because they can’t. They have access to other food that can be acquired without
using tools.’ As Bird noted, that fits nicely with Aesop’s maxim, demonstrated by the crow:
‘Necessity is the mother of invention.’

(Source: Official Guide for IELTS, p.65)

Questions 1-6

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-H, below.

Write the correct letter, A-H. in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet
1. A new study has actually
2. The intelligence of birds has been suggested in stories, but
3. Half of the birds in the experiment were immediately successful; however,
4. The birds promptly realised the advantage of using big stones, and so
5. The research showed rooks can use tools with ease, though
6. The rooks worked out the properties of different materials and as a result,

A. others needed several attempts.

B. experts think that they don’t do this in their natural habitat.
C. they achieved their goal sonner.
D. confirmed a fictional account.
E. helped us to understand a mysterious event.
F. only scientific studies can prove this.
G. they were able to protect themselves.
H. consistently rejected one particular type.

12
Luyện tập

Luyện tập 1 (Source: Cambridge IELTS 9, p.91)

A. A sense of self develops in young children by degrees. The process can usefully
be thought of in terms of the gradual emergence of two somewhat separate
features: the self as a subject, and the self as an object. William James introduced
the distinction in 1892, and contemporaries of his, such as Charles Cooley, added
to the developing debate. Ever since then psychologists have continued building on
the theory.

B. According to James, a child’s first step on the road to self-understanding can be seen
as the recognition that he or she exists. This is an aspect of the self that he labelled
‘self-as-subject’, and he gave it various elements. These included an awareness of
one’s own agency (i.e. one’s power to act), and an awareness of one’s distinctiveness
from other people. These features gradually emerge as infants explore their world
and interact with caregivers. Cooley (1902) suggested that a sense of the self-as-
subject was primarily concerned with being able to exercise  power. He proposed
that the earliest examples of this are an infant’s attempts to control physical objects,
such as toys or his or her own limbs. This is followed by  attempts to affect the
behaviour of other people. For example, infants learn that when they cry or smile
someone responds to them.

C. Another powerful source of information for infants about the effects they can have
on the world around them is provided when others mimic them. Many parents spend
a lot of time, particularly in the early months, copying their infant’s vocalizations
and expressions. In addition, young children enjoy looking in mirrors, where the
movements they can see are dependent upon their own movements. This is not to
say that infants recognize the reflection as their own image (a later development).
However, Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979) suggest that infants’ developing
understanding that the movements they see in the mirror are contingent on their
own, leads to a growing awareness that they are distinct from other people. This is
because they, and only they, can change the reflection in the mirror.

D. This understanding that children gain of themselves as active agents continues to

develop in their attempts to co-operate with others in play. Dunn (1988) points out that
it is in such day-to-day relationships and interactions that the child’s understanding
of his- or herself emerges. Empirical investigations of the self-as-subject in young
children are, however, rather scarce because of difficulties of communication: even
if young infants can reflect on their experience, they certainly cannot express this

13
 aspect of the self directly.

E. Once children have acquired a certain level of self-awareness, they begin to place
themselves in a whole series of categories, which together play such an important
part in defining them uniquely as ‘themselves’. This second step in the development
of a full sense of self is what James called the ‘self-as-object’. This has been seen by
many to be the aspect of the self which is most influenced by social elements, since
it is made up of social roles (such as student, brother, colleague) and characteristics
which derive their meaning from comparison or interaction with other people (such
as trustworthiness, shyness, sporting ability).

F. Cooley and other researchers suggested a close connection between a person’s own
understanding of their identity and other people’s understanding of it. Cooley believed
that people build up their sense of identity from the reactions of others  to them,
and from the view they believe others have of them. He called the self-as-object
the ‘looking-glass self’, since people come to see themselves as they are reflected
in others. Mead (1934) went even further, and saw the self and the social world as
inextricably bound together: ‘The self is essentially a social structure, and it arises
in social experience ... it is impossible to conceive of a self arising outside of social
experience.’

G. Lewis and Brooks-Gunn argued that an important developmental milestone is reached

when children become able to recognize themselves visually without the support of
seeing contingent movement. This recognition occurs around their second birthday.
In one experiment, Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979) dabbed some red powder on the
noses of children who were playing in front of a mirror, and then observed how often
they touched their noses. The psychologists reasoned that if the children knew what
they usually looked like, they would be surprised by the unusual red mark and would
start touching it. On the other hand, they found that children of 15 to 18 months are
generally not able to recognize themselves unless other cues such as movement
are present.

H. Finally, perhaps the most graphic expressions of self-awareness in general can be

seen in the displays of rage which are most common from 18 months to 3 years of
age. In a longitudinal study of groups of three or four children, Bronson (1975) found
that the intensity of the frustration and anger in their disagreements  increased
sharply between the ages of 1 and 2 years. Often, the children’s  disagreements
involved a struggle over a toy that none of them had played with  before or after
the tug-of-war: the children seemed to be disputing ownership rather than wanting
to play with it. Although it may be less marked in other societies, the link between
the sense of ‘self’ and of ‘ownership’ is a notable feature of childhood in Western
societies.

14
Vocabulary highlights

degree (n) Mức độ mimic (v) Bắt chước

distinction (n) Sự khác biệt/tách biệt acquire (v) Có được/ thu được
infant (n) Trẻ sơ sinh derive sth from để có được điều gì đó,
sth đặc biệt là một ích lợi
hoặc cảm giác dễ chịu,
từ điều gì đó.
propose (v) Đề xuất arise (v) Nảy sinh

Questions 1-6

Reading Passage has eight paragraphs, A-H.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

1. an account of the method used by researchers in a particular study

2. the role of imitation in developing a sense of identity

3. the age at which children can usually identify a static image of themselves

4. a reason for the limitations of scientific research into ‘self-as-subject’

5. reference to a possible link between culture and a particular form of behaviour

6. examples of the wide range of features that contribute to the sense of ‘self-as-object’

Questions 7-10

Look at the following findings (Questions 7-10) and the list of researchers below.

Match each finding with the correct researcher or researchers, A-E.

Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

A James
B Cooley
C Lewis and Brooks-Gunn
D Mead E Bronson
 7. A sense of identity can never be formed without relationships with other people.

8. A child’s awareness of self is related to a sense of mastery over things and people.

9. At a certain age, children’s sense of identity leads to aggressive behaviour.

10. Observing their own reflection contributes to children’s self awareness.

Luyện tập 2 (Source: Cambridge IELTS 13, p.24)

ARTIFICIAL ARTISTS

Can computers really create works of art?

The Painting Fool is one of a growing number of computer programs which, so their makers
claim, possess creative talents. Classical music by an artificial composer has had audiences
enraptured, and even tricked them into believing a human was behind the score. Artworks
painted by a robot have sold for thousands of dollars and been hung in prestigious galleries.
And software has been built which creates art that could not have been imagined by the
programmer.

Human beings are the only species to perform sophisticated creative acts regularly. If we can
break this process down into computer code, where does that leave human creativity? ‘This
is a question at the very core of humanity,’ says Geraint Wiggins, a computational creativity
researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London. ‘It scares a lot of people. They are worried
that it is taking something special away from what it means to be human.’

To some extent, we are all familiar with computerised art. The question is: where does the
work of the artist stop and the creativity of the computer begin? Consider one of the oldest
machine artists, Aaron, a robot that has had paintings exhibited in London’s Tate Modern
and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Aaron can pick up a paintbrush and paint
on canvas on its own. Impressive perhaps, but it is still little more than a tool to realise the
programmer’s own creative ideas.

Simon Colton, the designer of the Painting Fool, is keen to make sure his creation doesn’t
attract the same criticism. Unlike earlier ‘artists’ such as Aaron, the Painting Fool only needs
minimal direction and can come up with its own concepts by going online for material.
The software runs its own web searches and trawls through social media sites. It is now
beginning to display a kind of imagination too, creating pictures from scratch. One of its
original works is a series of f’zzy landscapes, depicting trees and sky. While some might say
they have a mechanical look, Colton argues that such reactions arise from people’s double
standards towards software-produced and human-produced art. After all, he says, consider
that the Painting Fool painted the landscapes without referring to a photo. ‘If a child painted
a new scene from its head, you’d say it has a certain level of imagination,’ he points out. The
same should be true of a machine.’ Software bugs can also lead to unexpected results. Some
of the Painting Fool’s paintings of a chair came out in black and white, thanks to a technical
glitch. This gives the work an eerie, ghostlike quality. Human artists like the renowned
Ellsworth Kelly are lauded for limiting their colour palette - so why should computers be any
different?

Researchers like Colton don’t believe it is right to measure machine creativity directly to that
of humans who ‘have had millennia to develop our skills’. Others, though, are fascinated by
the prospect that a computer might create something as original and subtle as our best
artists. So far, only one has come close. Composer David Cope invented a program called
Experiments in Musical Intelligence, or EMI. Not only did EMI create compositions in Cope’s
style, but also that of the most revered classical composers, including Bach, Chopin and
Mozart. Audiences were moved to tears, and EMI even fooled classical music experts into
thinking they were hearing genuine Bach. Not everyone was impressed however. Some,
such as Wiggins, have blasted Cope’s work as pseudoscience, and condemned him for his
deliberately vague explanation of how the software worked. Meanwhile, Douglas Hofstadter
of Indiana University said EMI created replicas which still rely completely on the original
artist’s creative impulses. When audiences found out the truth they were often outraged with
Cope, and one music lover even tried to punch him. Amid such controversy, Cope destroyed
EMI’s vital databases.

But why did so many people love the music, yet recoil when they discovered how it was
composed? A study by computer scientist David Moffat of Glasgow Caledonian University
provides a clue. He asked both expert musicians and non-experts to assess six compositions.
The participants weren’t told beforehand whether the tunes were composed by humans or
computers, but were asked to guess, and then rate how much they liked each one. People
who thought the composer was a computer tended to dislike the piece more than those
who believed it was human. This was true even among the experts, who might have been
expected to be more objective in their analyses.

Where does this prejudice come from? Paul Bloom of Yale University has a suggestion: he
reckons part of the pleasure we get from art stems from the creative process behind the
work. This can give it an ‘irresistible essence’, says Bloom. Meanwhile, experiments by Justin
Kruger of New York University have shown that people’s enjoyment of an artwork increases
if they think more time and effort was needed to create it. Similarly, Colton thinks that
when people experience art, they wonder what the artist might have been thinking or what
the artist is trying to tel them. It seems obvious, therefore, that with computers producing
art, this speculation is cut short - there’s nothing to explore. But as technology becomes
increasingly complex, finding those greater depths in computer art could become possible.
This is precisely why Colton asks the Painting Fool to tap into online social networks for its
inspiration: hopefully this way it will choose themes that will already be meaningful to us.
Vocabulary highlights

possess (n) Sở hữu replica (n) Bản sao chép

prestigious (adj) Danh giá assess (v) Đánh giá
chất lượng cơ bản và
sophisticated
Tinh xảo, tinh vi essence (n) quan trọng nhất của thứ
(adj)
gì đó
Được tán dương, ca
lauded (adj) prejudice (n) Định kiến
ngợi

Questions 1-6

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G below.

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

1. Simon Colton says it is important to consider the long-term view when

2. David Cope’s EMI software surprised people by

3. Geraint Wiggins criticised Cope for not

4. Douglas Hofstadter claimed that EMI was

5. Audiences who had listened to EMI’s music became angry after

6. The participants in David Moffat’s study had to assess music without

List of Ideas

A. generating work that was virtually indistinguishable from that of humans.

B. knowing whether it was the work of humans or software.

C. producing work entirely dependent on the imagination of its creator.

D. comparing the artistic achievements of humans and computers.

E. revealing the technical details of his program.

F. persuading the public to appreciate computer art.

G. discovering that it was the product of a computer program.