a ALES BAS 100 24 EL LEAR AB RK IR APT & RAT ERS ARMADA HREASRELGS SMAPS 1. Vocabulary: Choose the most appropriate answer. (24 points) 1. Most inventions arrive___ and undemanded, and when they do, sometimes they tend to wreck a destructive path over the existing environment. (A) ludicrously (B)unbidden —__(C) expectedly (D) inherently 2. With his success both in the field of cycling competition and in combating cancer, Lance Armstrong is a living whose story has inspired thousands of millions of people. (A) comrade (B) victim (C) antagonist (D) legacy 3. The of 911 attack wil never be healed for those who have lost their family and friends in this terrible event. (A) trauma (B) aftermath (C) relief (D) alleviation 4, Generational gap is an issue faced by many families. It is important for all family members to ____ the erack and make things better. (A)rip (B) mend (C) crash (D) reform 5, To many young adults, Harry Potter is such a__ movie series that they are willing to wateh it over and over again. (A) surreal (B) repulsive (C) captivating (D) despicable 6, Although doctors have warned people not to take painkiller too often, many people are still used to taking painkillers like panadol when having a headache to the pain (A) assuage (B) intensify (C) bemoan (D) restrict 7. Chewing gum is prohibited in Singapore. Those who break the law will receive severe corporal punishment. (A) indistinetly {B) courteously (C)commendably —__(D) emphatically 8. The decision to allow the import of ox tongue from the United States had ignited criticisms from the public last year. (A) excessive (B) rare (C) blistering (D) scarce 9. For many people, failures bring sadness and despair. But for Sasha Cohen, failures are what she ___. Failures motivate her to work harder and she finally won the biggest game of the year. (A)embarkson (B) deteriorates. (C) succeeds (D) thrives on 10, Without healthy players after a whole season of hard work, being eliminated from the playoff is the outcome for any elite team. (A) merciful (B) inexorable (C) unpredictable (D) incomprehensible 11. As the doctor warns John about the high possibility of getting a serious disease as a result of his smoking habit, John has decided to smoking which has been a part of his life for more than thirty years. (A) assert (B) expel (C) oppress (D) renounceALS RAS OSE RALRMELFRRD 12. Kevin's parents are very grateful of his teacher for she helped transform Kevin from a_ Teenager to a studious and caring young man. (A) recalcitrant (B) well-mannered (C) mysterious (D) amenable IL. Cloze: Choose the most appropriate answer. (36 points) For centuries, Christian cultures celebrated Carnival as a time to enjoy a little last-minute fun before the penitent Lent season began. For days___13___up to Ash Wednesday, the official start of Lent, people would partake __14__ their favorite indulgences. On the last d: or Fat Tuesday, they would eat a large feast to prepare for the reverent fasting and self-denial that ;, Shrove was to come, This tradition of mid-winter pleasure-seeking still exists around the globe. And although its righteous origins are somewhat forgotten, Carnival is still a fantastic season to get a(n) 15 Janeiro in Brazil _— into a particular culture. One of the most famous Carnivals in the world is the Rio De In the 15th century, Rio borrowed heavily from European carnival customs, holding masquerade balls similar to what you'll find in Venice. But by the 19th century, Brazilians had introduced their own style to the holiday, one that still continues to present day. Much fanfare 16_ the city’s free street parades. which are held for up to a month before Fat Tuesday. Various groups of partiers often host these lively marches through the downtown area, with free-flowing drinks and cranking samba music. __17__ important is the Samba Parade, held the two nights before Ash Wednesday in Rio's Sambodromo. Each competi Prepares for up to a year to showcase the best dances, elaborate floats and costumes all designed “samba school” ——18__one central theme, On the last night of Camaval, a committee chooses a winning performance. 13. (A) lead (B) led (C) leading (D) to lead 14. (A) for (B) in (of (D) to 15. (A) introduction (B) pass (C) entertainment (D) celebration 16. (A) circles (B) blossoms (©) supports (D) surrounds 17. (A) Conversely (B) Equally (C) Totally (D) Uniformly 18. (A) about (B) of (C) around (D) in More than 160 studi evidence” that of human and animal subjects has found “clear and compelling ——19_____—happy people tend to live longer and experience better health than their unhappy peers. The study, in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, is the most__20__ Teview so far of the evidence linking happiness to health outcomes. Its lead author, Ed Diener said, “We reviewed eight different types of studies.” Diener said. “And the general conclusion from each type of study is that your subjective well-being— that is , feeling positive about your life, not stressed out, not depressed—contributes_21__both longevity and better health among healthy populations.”QUES RAL 100 SERRE EFRAM A study that followed nearly 5,000 university students for more than 40 years, for example, found that those who were most __22 as students tended to die younger than their peers. An even longer-term study that followed 180 Catholic nuns from early adulthood to old age found that those who wrote positive autobiographies in their early 20s usually _23 those who wrote more negative accounts of their young lives. There were a few exceptions, but most of the long-term studies that the researchers __24___ found that anxiety, depression, and a lack of enjoyment of daily activities all are associated to higher rates of disease and a shorter lifespan. 19. (A) with that being said (B) all else being equal (C) some might find it unfair (D) an inconvenient truth 20. (A) comprehensive (B) comprehensible (C) unpredictable (D) flawless 21. (A) for (B) of (Ct (D) with, 22. (A) survive (B) surpass (C) bypass (D) outlive 23. (A) pessimistic (B) distrustful (C) optimistic (D) oppressive 24, (A) reviewed (B) have reviewed (C) reviewing (D) had been reviewing Content is supposed to be king. But in the world of electronic devices. Apple seems to be placing the crown on its own head, __25__ believing that its iPad and iPhone are more important to customers than the books, movies, and music they store on them. That’s the only explanation I can find for Apple’s brewing battle with Amazon and other companies that sell e-books for the iPad. Apple is__26 _arrule that will make it all but impossible for booksellers to offer their wares on its platform without lo: 1g money. It seems to believe that Amazon and others will___27__. And even if they withdraw from its platform, Apple seems not to care. It’s betting that people love their iPads so much they'd accept a narrower choice of content rather than switch to a different device, like Amazon’s Kindle. And it could be right. This all started because booksellers found a clever way to___28__Apple’s rules about selling stuff on its platform. If'a developer wants to sell something via an iPad app—it’s called an “in-app purchase”—the transaction must go through Apple, which keeps 30 percent of the money and passes 70 percent on to the developer. Here’s what Amazon and the others do: when you order a book using, you are __29__to.a Web browser and the transaction takes place there, not, inside the Kindle app itself. That way the 30 percent doesn’t go to Apple. Until recently, Apple put up with this. __30__, it is no longer the case. The new deal says that if you want to sell books from outside your app, that’s fine—as long as you make it possible for customers to buy from within it, too. 25. (A) publicly (B) naively (C) unexpectedly (D) apparently 26.(A) composing _(B) oppressing (C) imposing (D) exposing 27. (A) fight back (B) put up with it (C) applaud its si (D) take over the market eaeYESH AL 100 SERRE ES RR 28, (A) sue (B) eradicate (C) enact (D) sidestep 29, (A) taken (B) shown (C) displayed (D) focused 30. (A) On the contrary (B) On the other hand _(C) However (D) Accordingly III. Reading Comprehension (40 points) Passage One: Questions 31-36 Dr. Judith Kroth, a prominent cognitive scientist, discussed findings of her lab’s research on February 18" at a discussion session of the annual meeting of the American Association for the ‘Advanced Science. This discussion panel attracted an audience of almost 200 people. In her talk, Judith Kroth argued against the common belief that multilingual kids are hindered in their cognitive/linguistic development; she maintained that bilinguals, irrespective of their initial exposure to the second or third language, seem to help with multitasking and have a better control of their attentional resources in multitasking when compared with monolingual controls. Dr. Judith Kroll attributed this mind. Specifically, when mul “mental benefits” 10 the “operation” of the multilingual ingual kids and adults use a language (target language), lexical candidates from other (non-target) languages are also heightened and present in the background Multilingual speakers thus often have to involuntarily alternate between and/or among different lexicons. To efficiently use the target language—the language that is in active use, a multilingual speaker has to constantly suppress the irrelevant, non-target languages—the languages that are not in active use-while busily activating and choosing the appropriate lexical candidates from the target language. So the multilingual is always making lexical choices for a given situation and searching for the most appropriate lexical candidates that are activated at the same time. Multilingual speakers thus become experts in multitasking and are efficient in allocating attentional resources for tasks that are simultaneously performed at the same time. In addition to the above cognitive benefit, bilingual speakers may be less likely to suffer from age-related mental decline, such as Alzheimers and dementia. So, maybe the fact that I speak a few languages may provide me with mental and cognitive benefits beyond the ability to chat with locals when I travel. To gain better insight into the benefits of multilingual minds, more research is warranted 31. What does the passage mainly disc A. The dynamics of @ multilingual mind B, The cognitive benefit of learning multiple languages C. The lexical architecture developed by multilingual speakers D. The cognitive load involved in the meaning retrieval process of multilingual speakers34, 36. HLeSHRAP 100 SF RRL EFARR According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true? ‘A. Multilingual speakers become expert in multitasking because they learn to efficiently distribute their mental resources from their language experience. B. Multilingual speakers are not cons ious of the underlying mental process when they alternate between/among different lexicons. C. Multilingual speakers have larger working memory capacity, which allows them to perform multiple tasks at the same time. D. Activation and suppression are two important tasks involved in a multilingual speaker's meaning retrieval process. ‘What does the word “heightened A. induced line 10 (paragraph 2) mean? B. activated C. enlarged D. processed What can we infer from the passage? A. Efficient attention allocation leads to better multitasking skills. B, Multitasking skills are din C. Multit D. Only lexical candidates from the target languages are activated in a multilingual speaker's tly related to working memory capacity king skills provide language learners with a head start in learning a language. meaning retrieval process. ‘The word “operation” in line 8 (paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to: A. performance B. treatment C. funetioning D. organization What is the exact meaning of the statement—“more research is warranted"? ‘A. Answers to the inquiry about the benefit of multi research. ingual minds still require more future B. Existing empirical research has successfully explained everything we need to know about multilingual minds. CC. Questions about multilingual minds do not always come with an answer, D. Existing research on multilingual minds does not provide valid data/evidence. Passage Two: Questions 37-45 reckless behavior, which may impair our ability to think and drive. However, in real We seldom question the common belief that talking on a cell phone while driving is a fe, we tend to overestimate our multitasking skills and do it anyway. A recent study from University of Illinois shows that the reverse is also true, namely, driving also disrupts our oral skills and makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to remember what we have just talked about; we may have a -5-ALERGRAL 10024 RRLHYESRAR hard time to keep track of details, Comprehension speech requires attention and so does navigating and steering a family sedan. ‘The fact that we only have limited attentional resources entails that doing two or multiple different tasks at the same time, such as listening while driving, will impose a demanding cogni ive processing load on our attention processor. Consequently, each task will be performed without receiving sufficient attentional resource it deserves. To empirically establish the above a study in a driving simulator. Dr. Dell recruited ninety-six participants and paired them up: one Dr. Gary Dell of the University of Illinois conducted was assigned to the driver seat and one to the front passenger seat. Then, the paired participants were asked to listen to and repeat a series of stories, and then to repeat details of the stories after getting out of the car. Not surprisingly, the drivers who needed to simultaneously perform two tasks, namely taking the wheel and talking, had a tougher time recalling details of the stories than the passengers. In particular, their conversation skills took the biggest nosedive while they were trying to navigate a twisting course. and handle busy stop-and-go traffic. Based on the findings, Gary Dell contends forcefully that talking (on a cellphone) while driving does more than impairing our ability to drive; the act of driving makes listening and talking a much harder task. However, Dr, Dell’s research is not without contention. After reading the synopsis of this research finding on the Internet, a blogger nicknamed “Superlosch” argued that Dell's claim is at best _cireumstantial. In other words, i does not apply to all driving situations. According to Superlosch, the nosedive in navigating intersections or handling traffic only seems to happen when the direction to the driver's destination is unclear—an anecdote from his own driving experience. When the driver happens to be driving to school or work, less thought has to be given to where s/he must turn or how soon the next e st is approaching: as a result, the act of driving will consume less attentional recourses, thus allowing the mind to focus on the conversation while staying visually alert Having said this, Superlosch’s contention does not refute the possibility that people’s lives could be at risk when they are talking and driving on an unfamiliar route. So, next time, when you are sitting behind the steering wheel, think twice before you talk. For the upcoming research agenda, maybe the scientists will determine whether driving also impair our ability to sing, eat breakfast, and put on makeup behind the steering wheel. And, of course, text 37. According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true? A. Driving and talking on a cell phone only becomes a threat when they are simultaneously performed without sufficient attention resources. B. People probably have an easier time to manage multiple tasks (e.g., driving and talking) when taking a familiar route. C. Our ability to perform two (or more) different tasks is mainly constrained by the limit of our attentional resources. D. People are still able to perform multiple tasks given sufficient practice.38. 39. 40. 41, 42. ALE GRAAL 100 SF RALHBAS RAM What's the author’s purpose in writing this passage? A. to introduce our cognitive mechanism at work when we perform different tasks at the same time. ‘ch on multitasking skills earch on multitasking skills B. to present different views raised in re C. to describe the advancement in res D. to discuss various reckless driving behaviors Which of the following statements would be the most appropriate title for this passage? A. Listening while driving is, what'd you say? B. Intricate judgments involved in our driving behaviors C. Memory loss behind the steering wheel D. Proficient di What does the word A. Counter evidence against Dr. Dell’s finding B. Bloggers’ response to Dr. Dell’s claim C. The synopsis of Dr. Dell’s finding D. Dr. Dell’s view What does the author mean by “Dell’s claim is at best circumstantial” in the third paragraph (line 22-23)? ‘A. Dell is very circumspect in his statement. ing skills help with multitasking line 23 (paragraph 3) refer to? B, Dell’s evidence is merely suggestive but not conclusive. C. Dell’ view provides the best account for the issue at focus. D. Dell’s evidence is substantiated with sufficient empirical evidence. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the phrase “took the biggest nosedive” in the second paragraph (line 17)? ‘A. became the first to take action in a particular situation B. made a huge progress in doing something C. experienced a dramati D. gave someone a head start deterioration Which of the following is mentioned as a negative impact arising from conversing while driving? A. complete loss of ability to understand or express speech B. ability to navigate in heavy traffic C. ability to maintain one’s sanity D. accurate sense of spatial orientation ‘What does it mean by “To empirically establish the above view” (line 11) in the second paragraph? A. to validate the truth of this claim B. to address the view from an empirical perspective C. to keep people informed about the value of the claim D. to establish the theoretical underpinnings of the claim 7-ALS RAS 100 SF RRL eR 45. How would you describe the author’s stance on Dr. Dell’s research finding? The author A. shows a cautious distrust of Dell’s finding B. embraces Dell’s view wholeheartedly CC. feels that parts of Dell’s claim is debatable D. critiques the methods used in the research Passage Three: Questions 46-50 People standing at the bottom or the top of a staircase tend to overestimate steepness of a slope and think the angle is 20 degrees more than it really is. And, people can exhaust themselves Just by picturing the effort required to climb the slope. A new study suggests that our misperception of slope was not biased by fatigue or even fear of falling. Rather, we determine the steepness of a slope based both on our visual perception and our point of view—namely, people’ perception of how much motor effort the hills would require to climb. Researchers at Ohio State University asked 100 hundred passerby to estimate the angle of a set of stairs—which, of course, require no effort to ascend and another 100 to do the same for an escalator. ‘To further explore if our visual perception would be influenced by height, the researchers asked half the subjects in each condition to estimate the angle of a set of stairs or an escalator from the bottom and the other half’ ipants assigned to the staircase group consistently overestimated the slant of a slope by approximately 20 degrees; hills looked steeper from the top than from the bottom, presumably they were more difficult and more dangerous to descend than to from the top. The researchers found that the part ascend. And, this perception was universally perceived both by younger and older participants assigned to the stairs group: college-age students and older people estimated slopes the same. This finding suggested that people’s perception of slant does not seem to relate to people’s age-related physiological condition. However, misperception of slope steepness only happened at the chance level for the Participants assigned to the escalator condition, in which case no motor effort was required to ascend to the top. The disparate findings obtained from the stairs and escalator groups collectively provided evidence suggesting that our perspective—perceiving how much motor effort would be involved in climbing a slope—does affect our slant estimation process. 46. Which of the follo passage? A. Physiological condition does impact slant overestimation ing may serve as the title for B. The relationship between motor operation and slope climbing C. The impact of slant steepness on visual misperception D. A cognitive account for people’s overestimation of steepnessLERHRAS 100 SF RALHYLARRE 47. Which of the following statement is NOT true? A. Our visual misperception is influenced by height. B. C. Physiological factors such as aging and fatigue do not seem to impact slant overest D. Decreased physiological potential due to fatigue and increasing age leads to further exaggerations of the steepness of hills. lant overestimates is not observed in the escalator group. mates. 48. Which of the following sentence can be added to the end of the last paragraph without disrupting the flow of the whole passage? A. The above research finding thus provides convincing evidence that we are hardwired to be overly sensitive to changes in terrain slope B. A wealth of evidence has shown that people verbally overestimate the slant of hills by 15° 10 20°. C. Maybe people tend to overestimate the steepness of slopes and not because they are lazy D. Thus, the evidence favoring a psychological explanation has been disputed. 49. What does the author mean by “misperception of slope steepness only happened at the chance level” for participants assigned to the escalator group? A. Misperception of lant is consistently observed B. The occurrence of misconception is not observed C. The slope steepness is estimated in a biased and unfair way. D. The tendency to overestimate a slant cannot be consistently obtained, 50. The word “disparate” in line 20 (paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to: A. contrasting B. homogeneous C. various D. separate