Part Two READING COMPREHENSION Section One Directions: Read the text below and for each statement choose the letter (A, B or C) of the answer you have chosen. HIDDEN FIGURES Katherine Goble sat down with the engineers to review the requirements for the space technology lectures and the research reports that were coming out of the presentations. She asked lots of questions so that she completely understood the problems set before her. “Why can’t I go to the editorial meetings?” she asked the engineers. “Girls don’t go to the meetings,” her colleagues said. “Js there a law against it?” she asked. There wasn’t, of course. It wasn’t personal, the engineers told her. It was just the way things had always been done. The no-woman rule was a matter of practice, not policy. Langley gave each division chief and branch head the power to manage their own groups. These male bosses decided whether a woman was promoted, if she got a raise, or if she was permitted to attend meetings. Women at Langley had to learn how to work with men. They needed to be polite, but not so polite that they seemed timid. For the most part, men were engineers and women were computers. Men did the analytical thinking and women did the calculations. Men gave the orders and women took the notes. Unless an engineer was given a compelling reason to see a woman as a peer, she remained in his blind spot. Even the smartest woman might get stuck doing repetitive, humdrum work unless someone paid attention and gave her a chance. Women like Katherine Goble found their work interesting, just like the men did. For the women who found their true calling at NASA, they matched their male colleagues in curiosity, passion, and the ability to withstand pressure. The problem was that women had to get over the high hurdle of low expectations — they needed to prove 13that they were just as good as men and should be held to the same standards and given the same opportunities, Whatever personal insecurities Katherine Goble may have had about being a woman working with men or about being one of the few blacks in a white workplace, she didn’t let them bother her. Male or female, black or white, as far as Katherine was concerned, once she got to the office, “they were all the same” “Why can’t I go to the editorial meetings?” Katherine Goble asked again. On this issue, like any other, she kept up the questioning until she received a satisfactory answer. Her requests came across as gentle but persistent. She wasn’t going to let the matter drop. The greatest adventure in the history of humankind was happening in the office next door, and she wanted to be part of i “Let her go,” one of the men finally said, exasperated. The others agreed, no doubt tired of saying no. Who were they, they must have figured, to stand in the way of someone so committed to making a contribution? In 1958, Katherine Goble finally made it into the editorial meetings of the Guidance and Control Branch of Langley’s Flight Research Division, soon to be renamed the Aerospace Mechanics Division of NASA. She took her place at the table, where she knew she belonged. She had a lot to learn and a lot to offer. 1. Katherine Goble had a professional talk with the engineers in order to comprehend the scale of the problems she faced. A. True B. False C. No information in the text 2. Katherine couldn’t attend the editorial meetings due to an anti-feminine law. A. True B. False C. No information in the text 3. Women who worked for NASA were equal to men in qualifications and skills. A. True B. False C. No information in the text 4. Women at Langley had to take a course in computing to prepare for their job. A. True B. False C. No information in the text5. The narrator claims that women at NASA got blind through doing endless calculations, A. True B. False C. No information in the text 6. At NASA, Katherine felt inferior being a black woman in a white workplace. A. True B. False C. No information in the text 7. Katherine was persistent and wouldn’t give up raising the issue of her attending the editorial meetings. A. True B. False C. No information in the text 8. In spite of being against the idea in principle, one of the men suggested that she should be given the chance. A, True B. False C. No information in the text 9, The narrator implies that Katherine was a dedicated highly- qualified specialist. A, True B. False C. No information in the text 10. In 1958, Katherine was appointed Chair of the Guidance and Control Branch of Langley’s Flight Research Division. A. True B. False C. No information in the text Section Two Directions: From the list of heading A-E below choose the most suitable one for each paragraph of the text I-S. A. How are the whales rescued? B. Why do whales beach themselves? C. How will the dead bodies be cleaned up? D. Where were the whales found? E. How long would the rescue continue? ALMOST 400 WHALES DIE IN AUSTRALIA’S WORST STRANDING About 380 whales have died in what is suspected to be Australia’s largest stranding on record, officials say. Since Monday, hundreds of long-finned pilot whales have been found beached on Tasmania’s west coast.1 Rescuers had managed to save 50 by late evening on Weciesday, yy were trying to help the remaining estimated 30 Whales, Tasmanian government official said the rescue effort would continue Sas long as there are live animals ’. ae “While they’re still alive and in water, there’s still hope for therm goes on they do become more fatigued,” said NicDeka, — but as time g Fo igue regional manager for Tasmania s Parks and Wildlife Service, and the! 2. The regional manager added the focus would now also shift to removing the hundreds of carcasses scattered along the coast. A clean-up plan is still being worked out — in the past carcasses haye been buried on the shore or dragged out to open sea. It is not fully understood why the whales became stranded. The species is known to be prone to getting beached. The stranding, one of the largest ever recorded globally, eclipses a previous national record of. 320 set in Western Australia in 1996. 3. The whales largely washed up on sand spits in the waters around anarea called Macquarie Heads. The firstrescuers on Monday counted about 270 whales, but a helicopter on Tuesday spotted another 200 whales nearby. Officials said the second group may have washed in with the tide, but was believed to be part of the same pod. More than 80% of Australian whale strandings take place in Tasmania and experts say Macquarie Heads is a known hotspot. Tasmania’s previous biggest stranding was in 1935 with 294 pilot whales. Its last mass stranding was in 2009 and involved about 200 pilot whales. 4. A team of about 60 people have used slings and other equipment to help pull the surviving whales off the sand banks so they are fully immersed in water, Once the whales are “re-floated”, they are guided back into deeper waters. Rescuers said they had escorted 50 whales back into the sea, which they deemed a “success”. Rescue efforts 16had been hampered by a strong tide which had brought some freed whales back to shore, they added. “Geographically it’s quite a challenging area. It’s sort of inside an actual harbour so we’ve got several boats and hundreds of people ‘on the ground preparing the whales in slings,” Tom Mountney, a fisherman helping with the rescue operation, told BBC World Service radio. “They are remarkably calm. Some of them obviously, being a several ton animal, are quite strong so there’s inherent danger in dealing with them. But it’s as if there’s a bit of a sense of them knowing what we’re trying to do.” 5. Scientists say the reason is often unknown but they have arange of theories, including whales being lured by fish to shore and becoming disorientated. Highly social mammals, pilot whales in particular are known for stranding in groups because they travel in large, close- knit communities which rely on constant communication. Researchers say it’s possible that one leading individual could have mistakenly led the whole group to shore. It’s thought that such groups are also susceptible around beaches which gently slope across a wide area — because the whales’ sonar pulses can fail to detect the shoreline in shallow waters. Text Directions: Read the text below and for each gap circle the letter (A, B, Cor D) of the word or phrase that best suits each space. The typical American is recorded by (1. A. security B. safety C. defensive D. protective) cameras 238 times a week, according (2. A. on B. up C. to D. of) a new research report. That figure 74, Greta is eative. She’s always coming with new inno’ A,on B.down C. up D. to 5, We have already started to plans for the summer holidays. A. do B. talk C. carry D. make Section Two: Open Cloze Directions: Read the text below and for each of the gaps I-10 write one word that best suits the space. TEENS, FAME, SOCIAL MEDIA: TERRIBLY (NOT) FUNNY? How 1. can a teenager take his desire to find fame and popularity among his peers? What role can access 2. the Internet play in this situation? These and 3. questions are asked by the viewers after watching Swedish director Jonatan Etzler’s film, “Get Ready with Me”. Vendela is a typical teenager 4. wants to be special and popular, but 5. far she hasn’t done too well with either one. In addition, she 6. braces and is not the cutest girl in her class at all. The easiest way to change the situation, she decides, is to make provocative videos and 7. them on YouTube. And what could be more provocative 8. mocking teachers? Who cares about the results, right? The film shows that there are very fragile borders between online and offline life. Do they still exist or not? Do we actually realize where real ends and virtual begins? It’s a very thin line, especially if you are growing up today. Me and my generation, we didn’t have social media when we grew up, but this new generation — oh, it means 9. more for them, it’s part of their daily life. It’s going to be really interesting to see how it turns 10. how these young people will function as adults later.Section Five: Sentence Completion Directions: For each of the sentences below, choose the word or phrase (A, B or C) that best completes its meaning. 1, The principal’s speech was too complicated; it more concise if she had avoided discussing complex subjects. A. would have to be BB. would have been C. will have been 2. Rather than stay at home all winter, Jill try to go out more often. A, should B. ought C. needs AS ‘we made payments each week, the loan took a very long time to repay due to a high rate of interest. A. Although B. Even C. Despite 4. Lalways dread in front of people. A. to have spoken B. to speak C. speaking ss the rain stopped, the match started. A. As soon as B. Hardly C. No sooner Section Six: Sentence Transformation » Directions: Complete the second sentence so that it is as close as possible in meaning to the first one, using the word ae a CAPITALS. Do not change the word given.