TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN

Ex1: The largest thing in the universe

  More than ten years ago, while taking the temperature of the universe, astronomers found something odd. They
discovered that a patch of sky, spanning the width of 20 moons, was unusually cold.
The astronomers were measuring the thermal radiation that bathes the entire universe, a glowing relic of the big bang.
To gaze at this cosmic microwave background, or CMB, is to glimpse the primordial 1 universe, a time when it was less than
400,000 years old.
  The CMB blankets the sky, and looks pretty much the same everywhere, existing at a feebly cold temperature of 2.725
kelvins - just a couple degrees warmer than absolute zero. But armed with the newly launched WMAP satellite, the
astronomers had set out to probe temperature variations as tiny as one part in 100,000. Born from the quantum froth that
was the universe a half-moment after the big bang, those random fluctuations help scientists understand what the cosmos
is made of and how it all came to be.
  And standing out amidst those fluctuations was a cold spot. Over the years, astronomers have come up with all sorts of
ideas to explain it, ranging from instrumental error to parallel universes. But now, they're homing in on a prime suspect: an
enormous cavern of emptiness called a cosmic supervoid, so big that it might be the largest structure in the universe.
  According to theory, such a vast void, in which nary a star or galaxy exists, can leave a frigid imprint on the CMB. The
answer to the mystery, then, might simply be a whole lot of nothing. Yet puzzles remain, and the case is far from closed.
• Primordial1 - ancient, existing a very long time.
1. Astronomers often find something odd on the sky.   T                  
2. The CMB is the thermal radiation across the entire universe.           f            
3. The CMB varies from extremely low to very high temperatures.        F                
4. Investigation of fluctuations of temperature in the space help scientists to understand what the cosmos is made of          
NG
5. The cosmic supervoid is the largest structure in the universe. T

Ex2: The hottest month

According to the Met Office, the UK had its warmest July day ever on July 1, when temperatures hit 36.7 C near London.
There were record heat waves in many countries including Spain, while the African continent had the second-warmest July
on record.
  While the impact of increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a key driver of rising temperatures,
another important factor is El Nino. This natural phenomenon, which appears as a large swathe of warm water in the
Pacific every few years, is known to push up global temperatures.
  In recent days there have been reports that this year's El Nino will be particularly intense. As a result, many experts
believe that 2015 will be the warmest year on record by some margin.
  The seas have also been soaking up a large amount of heat, the NOAA said, with record warming in large expanses of the
Pacific and Indian Oceans
  Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring and attribution at the UK Met Office, said: "A strong El Nino is under way in the
tropical Pacific and this, combined with the long-term global warming trend, means there is the potential to see some very
warm months throughout this year - as the new figures for July appear to show.
1. Africa had the warmest July day ever on July 1.                    T 
2. The temperature is rising due to the increased level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.     T                         
3. 2015 might be the hottest year in the history.                                F
4. Record warming was recorded in various seas, such as Black and Azov Sea.            NG                     
5. The year 2015 might very well consist of a number of very warm months T
 Example 3: Programmable plants
In electronics, even the most advanced computer is just a complex arrangement of simple, modular parts that control
specific functions; the same integrated circuit might be found in an iPhone, or in an aircraft. Biologists are creating this same
modularity in – wait for it – plants, by designing gene "circuits" that control specific plant characteristics – color, size,
resistance to drought, you name it.
The relatively new, interdisciplinary field is synthetic biology – the design of genetic circuits, just like in electronics, that
control different functions and can be easily placed in one organism or the next. Most of today's synthetic biologists work
with simple microorganisms, like E. coli or yeast.
A CSU team led by June Medford, professor of biology, and Ashok Prasad, associate professor of chemical and biological
engineering, is doing the same thing, but in the much more complex biological world of plants.
1. The scientists are using a technique from electronics to control specific plant properties. T
2. Some synthetic biologists work with genetic circuits of mammals. T
3. Most of synthetic biologists work with mammals. NG

Ex4: Is there such a thing as Canadian English? If so, what is it?

  The standard stereotype among Americans is that Canadians are like Americans, except they say ‘eh’ a lot and pronounce
‘out and about’ as ‘oot and aboot’. Many Canadians, on the other hand, will tell you that Canadian English is more like
British English, and as proof will hold aloft the spellings colour and centre and the name zed for the letter Z.
  Canadian does exist as a separate variety of British English, with subtly distinctive features of pronunciation and
vocabulary. It has its own dictionaries; the Canadian Press has its own style guide; the Editors’ Association of Canada has just
released a second edition of Editing Canadian English. But an emblematic feature of Editing Canadian English is comparison
tables of American versus British spellings so the Canadian editor can come to a reasonable decision on which to use… on
each occasion. The core of Canadian English is a pervasive ambivalence.
  Canadian history helps to explain this. In the beginning there were the indigenous people, with far more linguistic and
cultural variety than Europe. They’re still there, but Canadian English, like Canadian Anglophone society in general, gives
them little more than desultory token nods. Fights between European settlers shaped Canadian English more. The French,
starting in the 1600s, colonised the St Lawrence River region and the Atlantic coast south of it. In the mid-1700s, England
got into a war with France, concluding with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ceded ‘New France’ to England. The English
allowed any French to stay who were willing to become subjects of the English King.
  At the time of the Treaty of Paris, however, there were very few English speakers in Canada. The American Revolution
changed that. The founding English-speaking people of Canada were United Empire Loyalists – people who fled American
independence and were rewarded with land in Canada. Thus Canadian English was, from its very beginning, both American –
because its speakers had come from the American colonies – and not American, because they rejected the newly
independent nation.
  Just as the Americans sought to have a truly distinct, independent American version of English, the loyalists sought to
remain more like England… sort of. These were people whose variety of English was already diverging from the British and
vice versa: when the residents of London and its environs began to drop their r’s and change some of their vowels people
in certain parts of the United States adopted some of these changes, but Canadians did not.
1. Canadian English is considered more like British English by Canadians T.                                         

2. According to the second paragraph, Canadian English is pretty similar to British, with some minor differences.       
F

3. The St Lawrence River was colonized by Canadians in 1600.       F                       

4. Canadian English is considered neither American nor not American.       NG                       

5. The fifth paragraph states that many English-speaking countries adopted changes in pronounciation.F