R Lesson1
R Lesson1
R Lesson1
Exercise 1:
Sylvia Earle is an underwater explorer and marine biologist who was born in the USA in 1935.
She became interested in the world’s oceans from an early age. As a child, she liked to stand on
the beach for hours and - look at the sea, wondering what it must be like under the surface.
When she was 16, she finally got a chance to make her first dive. It was this dive that inspired
her to become an underwater explorer. Since then, she has spent more than 6,500 hours under
water, and hạs led more than seventy expeditions worldwide. She has also made the – deepest
dive ever, reaching a record-breaking depth of 381 metres.
In 1970, she became famous around the world when she became the captain of the first all-
female team to live under water. The team spent two weeks in an underwater house. The research
they carried out showed the damage that pollution was causing to marine, life, and especially to
coral reefs. Her team also studied the problem of over-fishing. Fishing methods meant that
people were catching too many fish, Earle warned, and many species were in danger of
becoming extinct.
Since then she has written several books and magazine - articles in which she suggests ways of
reducing the damage that is being done to the world's oceans. One way, she believes, is to rely on
fish farms for seafood, and reduce the amount of fishing that is done out at sea. Although she no
longer eats seafood herself, she realises the importance it plays in our diets. It would be wrong to
tell people they should stop eating fish from the sea, she says. However, they need to reduce the
impact they are having on the ocean's supplies.
Question 1 – 5:
Now decide if these statements are TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN according to the information
in the passage. Write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
What is a bad habit? The most common definition is that it is something that we do regularly,
almost without thinking about it, and which has some sort of negative consequence. This
consequence could affect those around us, or it could affect us personally. Those who deny
having bad habits are probably lying. Bad habits are part of what makes us human.
Many early habits, like sucking our thumb, are broken when we are very young. We are either
told to stop doing it by our parents, or we consciously or subconsciously observe that others do
not have the same habit, and we gradually grow out of it. It is when we intentionally or
unintentionally pick up new habits in our later childhood or early adulthood that it becomes a
problem. Unless we can break that habit early on, it becomes a part of our life, and becomes
“programmed' into our brain.
A recent study of human memory suggests that no matter how hard we try to change our habits,
it is the old ways that tend to win, especially in situations where we are rushed, stressed or
overworked. Habits that we thought we had got rid of can suddenly come back. During the study
programme, the researchers - showed a group of volunteers several pictures, and gave them
words to associate with them (for example, see a picture of tea, and associate it with 'breakfast').
They then showed the volunteers the same pictures again, and gave them new words to associate
with them (see a, picture of tea, and say 'afternoon').
A few days later, the volunteers were given a test. The "researchers showed them the pictures,
and told them to respond with one of the words they had been given for each one. It came as no
surprise that thein answers were split between the first set of words and the second. Two weeks
later, they were given the same test again. This time, most of them only gave the first set of
words. They appeared to have completely forgotten the second set.
The study confirms that the responses we learn first are those that remain strongest over time.
We may try to change our ways, but after a while, the response that comes to mind first is
usually the first one we learned. The more - that response is used, the more automatic it becomes
and the harder it becomes to respond in any other way.
The study therefore suggests that over time, our bad habits also become automatic, learned
behaviour. This is not good news for people who picked up bad habits early in life and now want
to change or break them. Even when we try to put new, good intentions into practice, those
previously learned habits remain stronger in more automatic, unconscious forms of memory.
Questions 1-7:
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the Reading passage?
In boxes from 1 - 5 on the answer sheet, write:
Exercise 3:
Sometimes work, study or a sense of adventure take us out of our familiar surroundings to go and
live in a different culture. The experience can be difficult, even shocking. Almost everyone who
studies, lives or works abroad has problems adjusting to a new culture. This response is
commonly referred to as ‘culture shock’. Culture shock can be defined as ‘the physical and
emotional discomfort a person experiences when entering a culture different from their own’
(Weaver, 1993).
For people moving to Australia, Price (2001) has identified certain values which may give rise to
culture shock. Firstly, he argues that Australians place a high value on independence and
personal choice. This means that a teacher or course tutor will not tell students what to do, but
will give them a number of options and suggest they work out which one is the best in their
circumstances. It also means that they are expected to take action if something goes wrong and
seek out resources and support for themselves.
Australians are also prepared to accept a range of opinions rather than believing there is one
truth. This means that in an educational setting, students will be expected to form their own
opinions and defend the reasons for that point of view and the evidence for it. Price also
comments that Australians are uncomfortable with differences in status and hence idealise the
idea of treating everyone equally. An illustration of this is that most adult Australians call each
other by their first names. This concern with equality means that Australians are uncomfortable
taking anything too seriously and are even ready to joke about themselves.
Australians believe that life should have a balance between work and leisure time. As a
consequence, some students may be critical of others who they perceive as doing nothing but
study.
Australian notions of privacy mean that areas such as financial matters, appearance and
relationships are only discussed with close friends. While people may volunteer such
information, they may resent someone actually asking them unless the friendship is firmly
established. Even then, it is considered very impolite to ask someone what they earn. With older
people, it is also rude to ask how old they are, why they are not married or why they do not have
children. It is also impolite to ask people how much they have paid for something, unless there is
a very good reason for asking.
Kohls (1996) describes culture shock as a process of change marked by four basic stages. During
the first stage, the new arrival is excited to be in a new place, so this is often referred to as the
“honeymoon” stage. Like a tourist, they are intrigued by all the new sights and sounds, new
smells and tastes of their surroundings. They may have some problems, but usually they accept
them as just part of the novelty. At this point, it is the similarities that stand out, and it seems to
the newcomer that people everywhere and their way of life are very much alike. This period of
euphoria may last from a couple of weeks to a month, but the letdown is inevitable.
During the second stage, known as the ‘rejection’ stage, the newcomer starts to experience
difficulties due to the differences between the new culture and the way they were accustomed to
living. The initial enthusiasm turns into irritation, frustration, anger and depression, and these
feelings may have the effect of people rejecting the new culture so that they notice only the
things that cause them trouble, which they then complain about. In addition, they may feel
homesick, bored, withdrawn and irritable during this period as well.
Fortunately, most people gradually learn to adapt to the new culture and move on to the third
stage, known as ‘adjustment and reorientation’. During this stage a transition occurs to a new
optimistic attitude. As the newcomer begins to understand more of the new culture, they are able
to interpret some of the subtle cultural clues which passed by unnoticed earlier. Now things make
more sense and the culture seems more familiar. As a result, they begin to develop problem-
solving skills, and feelings of disorientation and anxiety no longer affect them.
In Kohls’s model, in the fourth stage, newcomers undergo a process of adaptation. They have
settled into the new culture, and this results in a feeling of direction and self-confidence. They
have accepted the new food, drinks, habits and customs and may even find themselves enjoying
some of the very customs that bothered them so much previously. In addition, they realise that
the new culture has good and bad things to offer and that no way is really better than another,
just different.
Now decide if these statements are TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN according to the
information in the passage.
Write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1 Australian teachers will suggest alternatives to students rather than offer one solution.
2 In Australia, teachers will show interest in students’ personal circumstances.
3 Australians use people’s first names so that everyone feels their status is similar.
4 Students who study all the time may receive positive comments from their colleagues.
5 It is acceptable to discuss financial issues with people you do not know well.
6 Younger Australians tend to be friendlier than older Australians.
Exercise 4:
Exercise 5:
The first posters were known as ‘broadsides’ and were used for public and commercial
announcements. Printed on one side only using metal type, they were quickly and crudely
produced in large quantities. As they were meant to be read at a distance, they required large
lettering. There were a number of negative aspects of large metal type. It was expensive, required
a large amount of storage space and was extremely heavy. If a printer did have a collection of
large metal type, it was likely that there were not enough letters. So printers did their best by
mixing and matching styles.
Commercial pressure for large type was answered with the invention of a system for wood type
production. In 1827, Darius Wells invented a special wood drill - the lateral router - capable of
cutting letters on wood blocks. The router was used in combination with William Leavenworth’s
pantograpn (1834) to create decorative wooden letters of all shapes and sizes. The first posters
began to appear, but they had little colour and design; often wooden type was mixed with metal
type in a conglomeration of styles.
A major development in poster design was the application of lithography, invented by Alois
Senefelder in 1796, which allowed artists to hand-draw letters, opening the field of type design
to endless styles. The method involved drawing with a greasy crayon onto finely surfaced
Bavarian limestone and offsetting that image onto paper. This direct process captured the artist's
true intention; however, the final printed image was in reverse. The images and lettering needed
to be drawn backwards, often reflected in a mirror or traced on transfer paper.
As a result of this technical difficulty, the invention of the lithographic process had little impact
on posters until the 1860s, when Jules Cheret came up with his ‘three-stone lithographic
process’. This gave artists the opportunity to experiment with a wide spectrum of colours.
Although the process was difficult, the result was remarkable, with nuances of colour impossible
in other media even to this day. The ability to mix words and images in such an attractive and
economical format finally made the lithographic poster a powerful innovation.
Starting in the 1870s, posters became the main vehicle for advertising prior to the magazine era
and the dominant means of mass communication in the rapidly growing cities of Europe and
America. Yet in the streets of Paris, Milan and Berlin, these artistic prints were so popular that
they were stolen off walls almost as soon as they were hung. Cheret, later known as ‘the father of
the modern poster’, organised the first exhibition of posters in 1884 and two years later published
the first book on poster art. He quickly took advantage of the public interest by arranging for
artists to create posters, at a reduced size, that were suitable for in-home display.
Thanks to Cheret. the poster slowly took hold in other countries in the 1890s and came to
celebrate each society’s unique cultural institutions: the cafe in France, the opera and fashion in
Italy, festivals in Spain, literature in Holland and trade fairs in Germany. The first poster shows
were held in Great Britain and Italy in 1894, Germany in 1896 and Russia in 1897. The most
important poster show ever, to many observers, was held in Reims, France, in 1896 and featured
an unbelievable 1,690 posters arranged by country.
In the early 20th century, the poster continued to play a large communication role and to go
through a range of styles. By the 1950s, however, it had begun to share the spotlight with other
media, mainly radio and print. By this time, most posters were printed using the mass production
technique of photo offset, which resulted in the familiar dot pattern seen in newspapers and
magazines. In addition, the use of photography in posters, begun in Russia in the twenties,
started to become as common as illustration.In the late fifties, a new graphic style that had strong
reliance on typographic elements in black and white appeared. The new style came to be known
as the International Typographic Style. It made use of a mathematical grid, strict graphic rules
and black-and-white photography to provide a clear and logical structure. It became the
predominant style in the world in the 1970s and continues to exert its influence today.
It was perfectly suited to the increasingly international post-war marketplace, where there was a
strong demand for clarity. This meant that the accessibility of words and symbols had to be taken
into account. Corporations wanted international identification, and events such as the Olympics
called for universal solutions, which the Typographic Style could provide. However, the
International Typographic Style began to lose its energy in the late 1970s. Many criticised it for
being cold, formal and dogmatic. A young teacher in Basel. Wolfgang Weingart, experimented
with the offset printing process to produce posters that appeared complex and chaotic, playful
and spontaneous - all in stark contrast to what had gone before. Weingart's liberation of
typography was an important foundation for several new styles. These ranged from Memphis and
Retro to the advances now being made in computer graphics.
Questions 10-13
Do the following statements agree with the information in the reading passage?
Write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
10. By the 1950s. photographs were more widely seen than artists' illustrations on
posters.
11. Features of the Typographic Style can be seen in modern-day posters.
12. The Typographic Style met a global need at a particular time in history.
13. Weingart got many of his ideas from his students in Basel.
Exercise 7:
Exercise 8:
1 Activities related to environmental protection and space exploration have a common theme.
2 It is unclear why space exploration evolved in a different way from environmental studies on
Earth.
3 Governments tend to allocate more money to environmental projects than space exploration.
4 Unfortunately, the environmental and space exploration communities have little to offer each
other in terms of resources.
5 The Earth and Space Foundation was set up later than it was originally intended.
Now complete the table. Choose ONE word from the passage for each answer.
City Overall Perceived advantages Perceived
position in disadvantages
survey
London 1……………… - Is more well-known than the other Is very 3 ..........
cities.
- Has excellent 2.......... opportunities.
Sydney Second - Residents are the 4 .......... Not many things
- Has the best quality of life to see.
- Has the most pleasant 5 ..........
Paris 6………………. - Is more 7..........than other cities Has a lot of 8 .....