English Language Assessment Paper 1: Reading Time: 1 hour Academic Module

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A s s es s m ent P aper I Reading Part 1

For questions 1 - 12, read the two texts below and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D) best fits each gap. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

Language
You and I belong to a species with a remarkable ability; we can shape events in each others brains with exquisite precision. Language is so (1) .... woven into human experience that it is scarcely possible to imagine life without it. (2) .... are that if you find two or more people together anywhere on earth, they will soon be (3) .... words. When there is no one to talk with, people talk to themselves, to their dogs, even to their plants. I like to describe the skill of language as an instinct. This (4) .... the idea that people know how to talk in more or less the sense that spiders know how to spin webs. W eb-spinning was not invented by some unsung spider genius, and does not (5) .... having had the right education or on having an (6) .... for architecture or the construction trades.
1 2 3 4 5 6 A A A A A A rigidly Chances sharing transmits build on aptitude B B B B B B tightly Probabilities reciprocating disseminates depend on applicability C C C C C C stiffly Reasons exchanging transfers count on intuition D D D D D D tautly Explanations trading conveys bank on intelligence

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Putting Pen to Paper

Journalists like myself are usually poor letter-writers. I have heard it (7) .... that it is because of the instinctive distaste we feel at writing something we are not going to be paid for, but I cannot believe we have quite such mercenary characters. It is more probably that (8) .... in our work, we are always (9) .... to get the greatest possible effect, the essential spontaneity of a letter (10) .... us. The real creative artist, who does not consciously work on the effect at all (though he may rewrite a passage dozens of times), does not have this problem. I believe that it is in this inherent grasp of the effect of his words that there (11) .... the only sure test of the real artist. When Shakespeare wrote some of his famous lines he (12) .... never thought consciously that it was the contrast between polysyllables that made them so effective, as well as showing him to be a great writer.

7 8 9 10 11 12

A A A A A A

said since striving misses goes inevitably

B B B B B B

told for exerting escapes remains confidently

C C C C C C

remarked like contending avoids lies particularly

D D D D D D

presumed once tackling passes exists surely

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Part 2
You are going to read an article about music. For questions 13 - 19, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

MUSIC AND THEATRE

Up until quite recently, I would have said that opera is first and foremost theatre. Not any more. After a brief spell working at a national opera house, I learned that opera is, in fact, only secondly theatre. The music comes first. That's as it should be, of course. But I come from a different world, the world of the theatre, where the word and the actor speaking it have primacy, where there is nobody out front directing the action once the event is under way, and where performer and audience (mostly) speak the same language. At any musical performance, whether in concert hall or opera house, there will generally be a substantial minority of people who, like me, have little technical or academic understanding of music. Some of them will be aware of, possibly even embarrassed by, how much they don't know. Most will be awestruck by the skill of the performers. A dazzling coloratura or an impeccable string section are easy to admire. Even a moderately good musician is showing us the results of years of punishingly hard work. Being in the audience for top-class music is not unlike watching an athletics match - we know athletes are doing something broadly similar to what we do when running for a bus, but we also recognise by how much it exceeds our best efforts. Theatre audiences by contrast, come with a different set of expectations. In the main they do not understand the nature of an actor's skill and are not particularly awed by an activity which, a lot of the time, appears to be very close to what they could do themselves. They are not usually impressed when an actor completes a long and difficult speech (although 'how do you learn all those lines?' is the question every actor gets asked). None of this means that theatre audiences are more generous or less demanding than their counterparts in the concert hall; indeed quite a lot of them are the same people. What perhaps it does mean is that audiences and performer meet on more equal terms in the theatre than elsewhere, no matter how challenging the material or spectacular the event. The question is, does music need to learn anything from the theatre about this relationship? I would say yes, partly because I have seen how a different approach can transform the concert-goer's experience. Music in live performance is inherently theatrical, full of passion, humour, melancholy, intimacy, grandeur; vulnerable to the possibility that something will go unexpectedly wrong, reaching into the imagination of the listener not just as an individual but as part of a collective. The conventions which still largely dominate music presentation, including strict dress codes and an exaggerated deference to the status of conductors and soloists, emphasise the difference between players and listeners in a way which often feels uncomfortably hierarchical. On the other hand, the tendency of contemporary music audiences to interrupt the momentum of performance by applauding between movements or after a particular piece of virtuosity, while it is often a spontaneous expression of appreciation, can also be insensitive to the dramatic integrity of the whole work.

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Is there anything to be done? Of course a huge amount is being done. Pioneering work is going on all over the country to encourage new audiences into concert halls and opera houses, and to break down the barriers that make people feel that 'serious' music is not for them. I remember a remarkable event, the staging of Jonathan Dove's community opera In Search of Angels, which followed the action from location to location within a cathedral and then out into the town. It was a musical experience of the highest order, in which the skills, and the generosity, of the professional musicians were absolutely central and it was also life-changing for many of the audience, who were not just there to see and hear but also to contribute directly. Perhaps what I yearn for in music is a bit more of the risk and radicalism that theatre at its best can display. Sometimes it can come from the use of unfamiliar or challenging locations, where normal expectations are disrupted. This can have startling effects on performer and audience alike. Comforts may have to be foregone; perhaps the acoustic isn't great, maybe it's a bit cold, but theatre audiences have learned to be intrepid as they follow artists into the most unpromising spaces. I accept that most plays get put on in a pretty uncontroversial way, not greatly different from what happens in a concert hall. However I remain convinced that something can and should happen to change the conventions of music-going. The only authority I can claim is that of the enthusiast: I love, and live by, the theatre and I spend as much tune (and money) as I can going to hear music. I want them both to thrive, and for more and more people to get the pleasure I get from being the audience.

13

What does the writer imply in the first paragraph? A B C D She finds opera difficult to appreciate. She recognises some shortcomings of the theatre. She has re-evaluated her view of opera. She is reluctant to change her view of the theatre.

14

The writer says that a significant number of people who attend musical performances may A B C D lack her specialist knowledge. have a sense of inadequacy. be unimpressed by the musicians' talent. make no attempts to engage with the music.

15

What point is exemplified by the reference to athletes in the second paragraph? A B C D Musicians have to train for longer than athletes. Athletes find performing in public demanding. Audiences recognise the particular talent of the musicians. It is harder to become an athlete than a musician.

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What does the writer say about theatre audiences? A B C D Their assumptions are different from concert audiences. They regard the actor's technique as crucial. Their appraisal of performances is realistic. They are less critical than concert audiences.

17

What is the writer's attitude towards the conventions surrounding musical performance? A B C D It is unreasonable to expect instant changes. They enable the audience to show respect for the performers. It is important to retain some traditions. They can result in a feeling of divisiveness.

18

What was it about the staging of In Search of Angels that impressed the writer? A B C D the size of the auditorium the absence of commercial motivation the composition of the audience the opportunity for audience participation

19

In the final paragraph, the writer expresses a desire to see more A B C D cooperation between musicians and actors. suitable facilities at venues. challenging music in theatrical performances. innovation in musical performances.

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Part 3
You are going to read a text on numeration. Answer questions 20 30. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

Numeration
One of the first great intellectual feats of a young child is learning how to talk, closely followed by learning how to count. From earliest childhood we are so bound up with our system of numeration that it is a feat of imagination to consider the problems faced by early humans who had not yet developed this facility. Careful consideration of our system of numeration leads to the conviction that, rather than being a facility that comes naturally to a person, it is one of the great and remarkable achievements of the human race. It is impossible to learn the sequence of events that led to our developing the concept of number. Even the earliest of tribes had a system of numeration that, if not advanced, was sufficient for the tasks that they had to perform. Our ancestors had little use for actual numbers; instead their considerations would have been more of the kind Is this enough? rather than How many? when they were engaged in food gathering, for example. However, when early humans first began to reflect on the nature of things around them, they discovered that they needed an idea of number simply to keep their thoughts in order. As they began to settle, grow plants and herd animals, the need for a sophisticated number system became paramount. It will never be known how and when this numeration ability developed, but it is certain that numeration was well developed by the time humans had formed even semipermanent settlements. Evidence of early stages of arithmetic and numeration can be readily found. The indigenous peoples of Tasmania were only able to count one, two, many; those of South Africa counted one, two, two and one, two twos, two twos and one, and so on. But in real situations the number and words are often accompanied by gestures to help resolve any confusion. For example, when using the one, two, many type of system, the word many would mean, Look at my hands and see how many fingers I am showing you. This basic approach is limited in the range of numbers that it can express, but this range will generally suffice when dealing with the simpler aspects of human existence. The lack of ability of some cultures to deal with large numbers is not really surprising. European languages, when traced back to their earlier version, are very poor in number words and expressions. The ancient Gothic word for ten, tachund, is used to express the number 100 as tachund tachund. By the seventh century, the word teon had become interchangeable with the tachund or hund of the Anglo-Saxon language, and so 100 was denoted as hund teontig, or ten times ten. The average person in the seventh century in Europe was not as familiar with numbers as we are today. In fact, to qualify as a witness in a court of law a man had to be able to count to nine!

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Perhaps the most fundamental step in developing a sense of number is not the ability to count, but rather to see that a number is really an abstract idea instead of a simple attachment to a group of particular objects. It must have been within the grasp of the earliest humans to conceive that four birds are distinct from two birds; however, it is not an elementary step to associate the number 4, as connected with four birds, to the number 4, as connected with four rocks. Associating a number as one of the qualities of a specific object is a great hindrance to the development of a true number sense. When the number 4 can be registered in the mind as a specific word, independent of the object being referenced, the individual is ready to take the first step toward the development of a notational system for numbers and, from there, to arithmetic. Traces of the very first stages in the development of numeration can be seen in several living languages today. The numeration system of the Tsimshian language in British Columbia contains seven distinct sets of words for numbers according to the class of the item being counted: for counting flat objects and animals, for round objects and time, for people, for long objects and trees, for canoes, for measures, and for counting when no particular object is being numerated. It seems that the last is a later development while the first six groups show the relics of an older system. This diversity of number names can also be found in some widely used languages such as Japanese. Intermixed with the development of a number sense is the development of an ability to count. Counting is not directly related to the formation of a number concept because it is possible to count by matching the items being counted against a group of pebbles, grains of corn, or the counter's fingers. These aids would have been indispensable to very early people who would have found the process impossible without some form of mechanical aid. Such aids, while different, are still used even by the most educated in today's society due to their convenience. All counting ultimately involves reference to something other than the things being counted. At first it may have been grains or pebbles but now it is a memorised sequence of words that happen to be the names of the numbers.

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Questions 20 24
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G, below. Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 20 24 on your answer sheet. 20 21 22 23 24 A developed system of numbering An additional hand signal In seventh-century Europe, the ability to count to a certain number Thinking about numbers as concepts separate from physical objects Expressing number differently according to class of item

A B C D E F G

was necessary in order to fulfil a civic role. was necessary when people began farming. was necessary for the development of arithmetic. persists in all societies. was used when the range of number words was restricted. can be traced back to early European languages. was a characteristic of early numeration systems.

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Questions 25 30
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? In boxes 25 - 30 on your answer sheet, write TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 25 26 27 28 29 30 if the statement agrees with the information if the statement contradicts the information if there is no information on this

For the earliest tribes, the concept of sufficiency was more important than the concept of quantity. Some peoples with simple number systems use body language to prevent misunderstanding of expressions of number. All cultures have been able to express large numbers clearly. The word 'thousand' has Anglo-Saxon origins. In general, people in seventh-century Europe had poor counting ability. The Tsimshian language contains both older and newer systems of counting.

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Part 4
You are going to read the text Nature or Nurture. Answer questions 31 - 39. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

Nature or Nurture?
A A few years ago, in one of the most fascinating and disturbing experiments in behavioural psychology, Stanley Milgram of Yale University tested 40 subjects from all walks of life for their willingness to obey instructions given by a 'leader' in a situation in which the subjects might feel a personal distaste for the actions they were called upon to perform. Specifically, Milgram told each volunteer 'teacher-subject' that the experiment was in the noble cause of education, and was designed to test whether or not punishing pupils for their mistakes would have a positive effect on the pupils' ability to learn. Milgram's experimental set-up involved placing the teacher-subject before a panel of thirty switches with labels ranging from '15 volts of electricity (slight shock)' to '450 volts (danger - severe shock)' in steps of 15 volts each. The teacher-subject was told that whenever the pupil gave the wrong answer to a question, a shock was to be administered, beginning at the lowest level and increasing in severity with each successive wrong answer. The supposed 'pupil' was in reality an actor hired by Milgram to simulate receiving the shocks by emitting a spectrum of groans, screams and writhings together with an assortment of statements and expletives denouncing both the experiment and the experimenter. Milgram told the teacher-subject to ignore the reactions of the pupil, and to administer whatever level of shock was called for, as per the rule governing the experimental situation of the moment. As the experiment unfolded, the pupil would deliberately give the wrong answers to questions posed by the teacher, thereby bringing on various electrical punishments, even up to the danger level of 300 volts and beyond. Many of the teacher-subjects balked at administering the higher levels of punishment, and turned to Milgram with questioning looks and/or complaints about continuing the experiment. In these situations, Milgram calmly explained that the teacher-subject was to ignore the pupil's cries for mercy and carry on with the experiment. If the subject was still reluctant to proceed, Milgram said that it was important for the sake of the experiment that the procedure be followed through to the end. His final argument was, 'You have no other choice. You must go on.' What Milgram was trying to discover was the number of teacher-subjects who would be willing to administer the highest levels of shock, even in the face of strong personal and moral revulsion against the rules and conditions of the experiment.

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Prior to carrying out the experiment, Milgram explained his idea to a group of 39 psychiatrists and asked them to predict the average percentage of people in an ordinary population who would be willing to administer the highest shock level of 450 volts. The overwhelming consensus was that virtually all the teacher-subjects would refuse to obey the experimenter. The psychiatrists felt that 'most subjects would not go beyond 150 volts' and they further anticipated that only four per cent would go up to 300 volts. Furthermore, they thought that only a lunatic fringe of about one in 1,000 would give the highest shock of 450 volts. What were the actual results? Well, over 60 per cent of the teacher-subjects continued to obey Milgram up to the 450-volt limit! In repetitions of the experiment in other countries, the percentage of obedient teacher-subjects was even higher, reaching 85 per cent in one country. How can we possibly account for this vast discrepancy between what calm, rational, knowledgeable people predict in the comfort of their study and what pressured, flustered, but cooperative 'teachers' actually do in the laboratory of real life? One's first inclination might be to argue that there must be some sort of builtin animal aggression instinct that was activated by the experiment, and that Milgram's teacher-subjects were just following a genetic need to discharge this pent-up primal urge onto the pupil by administering the electrical shock. A modern hard-core sociobiologist might even go so far as to claim that this aggressive instinct evolved as an advantageous trait, having been of survival value to our ancestors in their struggle against the hardships of life on the plains and in the caves, ultimately finding its way into our genetic make-up as a remnant of our ancient animal ways. An alternative to this notion of genetic programming is to see the teachersubjects' actions as a result of the social environment under which the experiment was carried out. As Milgram himself pointed out, 'Most subjects in the experiment see their behaviour in a larger context that is benevolent and useful to society - the pursuit of scientific truth. The psychological laboratory has a strong claim to legitimacy and evokes trust and confidence in those who perform there. An action such as shocking a victim, which in isolation appears evil, acquires a completely different meaning when placed in this setting.' Thus, in this explanation the subject merges his unique personality and personal and moral code with that of larger institutional structures, surrendering individual properties like loyalty, self-sacrifice and discipline to the service of malevolent systems of authority. Here we have two radically different explanations for why so many teachersubjects were willing to forgo their sense of personal responsibility for the sake of an institutional authority figure. The problem for biologists, psychologists and anthropologists is to sort out which of these two polar explanations is more plausible. This, in essence, is the problem of modern sociobiology - to discover the degree to which hard-wired genetic programming dictates, or at least strongly biases, the interaction of animals and humans with their environment, that is, their behaviour. Put another way, sociobiology is concerned with elucidating the biological basis of all behaviour.

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Questions 31 - 35
The text Nature or Nurture has nine paragraphs, A-I. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-I in boxes 31 34 on your answer sheet. 31 32 33 34 a biological explanation of the teacher-subjects' behaviour the identity of the pupils the expected statistical outcome the way Milgram persuaded the teacher-subjects to continue

Questions 35 & 36
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write your answers in boxes 35 & 36 on your answer sheet. 35 The teacher-subjects were told that they were testing whether A B C D 36 a 450-volt shock was dangerous. punishment helps learning. the pupils were honest. they were suited to teaching.

The teacher-subjects were instructed to A B C D stop when a pupil asked them to. denounce pupils who made mistakes. reduce the shock level after a correct answer. give punishment according to a rule.

Questions 37 - 39
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? In boxes 37 39 on your answer sheet, write TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 37 38 39 if the statement agrees with the information if the statement contradicts the information if there is no information on this

Several of the subjects were psychology students at Yale University. Some people may believe that the teacher-subjects' behaviour could be explained as a positive survival mechanism. In a sociological explanation, personal values are more powerful than authority.

The End
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KEY Assessment Lecturers SAMPLE TEST Reading

Part 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Part 2 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. Part 3 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. Part 4 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39.

B A C D B A A A A B C D C B C A D D D B E A C G TRUE TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN TRUE TRUE F B D C B D NOT GIVEN TRUE FALSE

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