TEST 1

SECTION 2. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (40 pts)

Part 1: Choose the best option A, B, C or D to complete the following sentences. (10 pts)
1. She ________ agreed to go with him to the football match although she had no interest in the game at
all.
A. apologetically B. grudgingly C. shamefacedly D. discreetly
2. The smoke ___________ from the burning tyres could be seen for miles
A. sweeping B. billowing C. radiating D. bulgingo
3. A common cause of _______ is the use of untreated water in preparation for foods, which is quite
common in certain underdeveloped countries.
A. displeasure B. malnutrition C. eupepsia D. dysentery
4. Among scientists and non-scientists ___________, many now say that it’s a given that human-
induced warming threatens to disrupt life on Earth.
A. respectively B. alike C. both D. likewise
5. We are pleased to inform you that we have decided to ____________ your request for British
citizenship.
A. give B. grant C. permit D. donate
6. Only after he had carefully ……… the figures did he make any comments.
A. estimated B. watched C. scrutinised D. remarked
7. I’m not sufficiently versed ____ computers to understand what you’re saying.
A. to B. into C. about D. in
8. Tom’s normally very efficient but he’s been making a lot of mistakes ______
A. of late B. for now C. in a while D. shortly
(so far)
9. On the way to Cambridge yesterday, the road was blocked by a fallen tree, so we had to make a
_____________.
A. deviation B. digression C. detour D. departure
10. Let us hope that ____________ a nuclear war, the human race still survive.
A. in relation to B. with reference to
C. in the event of D. within the realm of
Your answers:
1. ______ 2. ______ 3. ______ 4. ______ 5. _____
6. ______ 7. ______ 8. ______ 9. ______ 10. ___ ___

Part 2: There are 10 mistakes in the following passage. Write the mistakes and corrections in the
space given. (10 pts)
True relaxing is most certainly not a matter of flopping down in front of the television with a
welcome drink. Nor is it about drifting into an exhausted sleep. Useful though these responses to tension
and over-tiredness might be, we should distinguish among them and conscious relaxation in terms of
quality and effect. Regarded of the level of tiredness, real relaxation is a state of alert yet in the same
time passive awareness, in which our bodies are at rest while our minds are waken..
 Moreover, it is as natural for a healthy person to be relaxed when moving as resting. Being
relaxed in action means we bring the appropriate energy to everything we do, so to have a feeling of
health tiredness by the end of the day, rather than one of exhaustion. Unfortunately, as a result of living
in today’s competitive world, we are under constant strain and have difficult in coping, let alone
nurturing our body’s abilities. which needs to be rediscovered is conscious relaxation. With that in mind
we must apply ourselves to understand stress and the nature of its causes how deep-seated.

Your answer:
Line Mistake Correction
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Part 3. Fill in each blanks with the correct preposition(s)/ particle(s) 10 pts
1. Footballers used to ______ the referee's decision, but nowadays they are just as likely to punch him in
the mouth.
2. My speech is okay but I just hope I don’t dry ______ as soon as I get to the podium.
3. My brother has always been ______ the fringe of the Labour party, never at the centre.
4. The paintings were given to the state by the millionaire ______ lieu of taxes.
5. Did you know that Samantha has taken ______ Martin again – they’re spending lots of time together.
6. I’ve been asked to key information ______ the computer immediately.
7. I don’t like him as every time he asks me to do something, his voice is always laden _______ threat
8. I feel quite nostalgic _______ the place where I grew up.
9. I was thinking of going to live in Scotland, but when I heard that I would have to wear a kilt, I
decided ______ it.
10. Good hygiene helps keep _______ the levels of infection.
Your answers:
1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________
6. __________ 7. __________ 8. __________ 9. __________ 10. __________

SECTION 3. READING (50 pts)

Part 1: Read the article below and circle the letter next to the word which best fits each space. (10
pts)
 Broadcasting has democratized the publication of language, often at its most informal, even
undressed. Now the ears of the educated cannot escape the language of the masses. It (1) _____ them on
the news, weather, sports, commercials, and the ever-proliferating game shows. This wider
dissemination of popular speech may easily give purists the (2) _____ that language is suddenly going
to hell in this generation, and may (3) _____ the new paranoia about it.
It might also be argued that more Armericans hear more correct, even beautiful, English on
television than ever before. Through television more models of good usage (4) _____ more American
homes than was ever possible in other times. Television gives them lots of (5) _____ English too, some
awful, some creative, but that is not new.
Hidden in this is a (6) _____ fact: our language is not the special private property of the language
police, or grammarians, or teachers, or even great writers. The (7) _____ of English is that it has always
been the tongue of the common people, literate or not.
English belongs to everybody: the funny (8) _____ of phrase that pops into the mind of a farmer
telling a story; or the (9) _____ salesman’s dirty joke; or the teenager saying, "Gag me with a spoon"; or
the pop lyric - all contribute, are all as (10) _____ as the tortured image of the academic, or the line the
poet sweats over for a week.
1. A. circles B. surrenders C. supports D. surrounds
2. A. thought B. idea C. sight D. belief
3. A. justify B. inflate C. explain D. idealise
4. A. render B. reach C. expose D. leave
5. A. colloquial B. current C. common D. spoken
6. A. central B. stupid C. common D. simple
7. A. genii B. genius C. giant D. generalisation
8. A. turn B. twist C. use D. time
9. A. tour B. transport C. travel D. travelling
10. A. valued B. valid C. truthful D. imperfect

Part 2: Fill in the blanks with one suitable word for each to complete the following passage. (10
pts)
Throughout our lives, right from the moment when as infants we cry to express our hunger, we are
engaged in social interaction of one form or another. Each and (1) ______ time we encounter fellow
human beings, some kind of social interaction will take place, (2)_______ it’s getting on a bus and
paying the fare for the journey, or socializing with friends. It goes without (3) ______, therefore, that we
need the ability to communicate. Without some method of (4)_______ intentions, we would be at a(n)
(5)_______ loss when it came to interacting socially.
Communication (6)_______ the exchange of information which can be anything from a gesture to
a friend signalling boredom to the presentation of a university thesis which may only ever be read by a
(7)_______ of others, or it could be something in (8)_______ the two. Our highly developed languages
set us (9)_______ from animals. But for these languages, we could not communicate sophisticated or
abstract ideas. Nor could we talk or write about people or objects mot immediately present.
(10)_______ we restricted to discussing objects already present, we would be able to make abstract
generalizations about the world.

Your answers:
1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________
6. __________ 7. __________ 8. __________ 9. __________ 10. __________
Part 3: Read the passage then circle the best option A, B, C or D to answer the questions given.
(10 pts)
PERCEPTION
It is often helpful when thinking about biological processes to consider some apparently similar yet
better understood non-biological process. In the case of visual perception an obvious choice would be
colour photography. Since in many respects eyes resemble cameras, and percepts photographs, is it not
reasonable to assume that perception is a sort of photographic process whereby samples of the external
world become spontaneously and accurately reproduced somewhere inside our heads? Unfortunately,
the answer must be no. The best that can be said of the photographic analogy is that it points up what
perception is not. Beyond this it is superficial and misleading. Four simple experiments should make the
matter plain.
In the first a person is asked to match a pair of black and white discs, which are rotating at such a
speed as to make them appear uniformly grey. One disc is standing in shadow, the other in bright
illumination. By adjusting the ratio of black to white in one of the discs the subject tries to make it look
the same as the other. The results show him to be remarkably accurate, for it seems he has made the
proportion of black to white in the brightly illuminated disc almost identical with that in the disc which
stood in shadow. But there is nothing photographic about his perception, for when the matched discs,
still spinning, are photographed, the resulting print shows them to be quite dissimilar in appearance. The
disc in shadow is obviously very much darker than the other one. What has happened? Both the camera
and the person were accurate, but their criteria differed. One might say that the camera recorded things
as they look, and the person things as they are. But the situation is manifestly more complex than this,
for the person also recorded things as they look. He did better than the camera because he made them
look as they really are. He was not misled by the differences in illumination. He showed perceptual
constancy. By reason of an extremely rapid, wholly unconscious piece of computation he received a
more accurate record of the external world than could the camera.
In the second experiment a person is asked to match with a colour card the colours of two pictures in
dim illumination. One is of a leaf, the other of a donkey. Both are coloured an equal shade of green. In
making his match he chooses a much stronger green for the leaf than for the donkey. The leaf evidently
looks greener than the donkey. The percipient makes a perceptual world compatible with his own
experience. It hardly needs saying that cameras lack this versatility.
In the third experiment hungry, thirsty and satiated people are asked to equalize the brightness of
pictures depicting food, water and other objects unrelated to hunger or thirst. When the intensities at
which they set the pictures are measured it is found that hungry people see pictures relating to food as
brighter than the rest (i.e. to equalize the pictures they make the food ones less intense), and thirsty
people do likewise with “drink” pictures. For the satiated group no differences are obtained between the
different objects. In other words, perception serves to satisfy needs, not to enrich subjective experience.
Unlike a photograph the percept is determined by more than just the stimulus.
The fourth experiment is of a rather different kind. With ears plugged, their eyes beneath translucent
goggles and their bodies either encased in cotton wool, or floating naked in water at body temperature,
people are deprived for considerable periods of external stimulation. Contrary to what one might expect,
however, such circumstances result not in a lack of perceptual experience but rather a surprising change
in what is perceived. The subjects in such an experiment begin to see, feel and hear things which bear
no more relationship to the immediate external world than does a dream in someone who is asleep.
These people are not asleep yet their hallucinations, or so-called “autistic” perceptions, may be as vivid,
if not more so, than any normal percept.
From "The beginnings of perception " by N. F. Dixon
1. In the first paragraph, the author suggests that …
A. colour photography is a biological process.
B. vision is rather like colour photography.
C. vision is a sort of photographic process.
 D. vision and colour photography are very different.
2. What does the word “it”, underlined in the first paragraph, refer to? .
A. perception C. the comparison with photography
B. the photographic process D. the answer
3. In the first experiment, it is proved that a person …
A. makes mistakes of perception and is less accurate than a camera.
B. can see more clearly than a camera.
C. is more sensitive to changes in light than a camera.
D. sees colours as they are in spite of changes in the light.
4. What does the word “that”, underlined in the second paragraph, refer to?
A. the proportion of black to white C. the other disc
B. the brightly illuminated disc D. the grey colour
5. The second experiment shows that …
A. people see colours according to their ideas of how things should look.
B. colours look different in a dim light.
C. cameras work less efficiently in a dim light.
D. colours are less intense in larger objects.
6. What does the word “Satiated”, underlined in the fourth paragraph, means?
A. tired C. not hungry or thirsty
B. bored D. nervous
7. What does “to equalize the brightness", underlined in the fourth paragraph, mean?
A. To arrange the pictures so that the equally bright ones are together.
B. To change the lighting so that the pictures look equally bright.
C. To describe the brightness.
D. To move the pictures nearer or further away.
8. The third experiment proves that …
A. we see things differently according to our interest in them.
B. pictures of food and drink are especially interesting to everybody.
C. cameras are not good at equalising brightness.
D. satiated people see less clearly than hungry or thirsty people.
9. The expression “contrary to what one might expect” occurs the fifth paragraph. What might one
expect?
A. that the subjects would go to sleep.
B. that they would feel uncomfortable and disturbed.
C. that they would see, hear and feel nothing.
D. that they would see, hear and feel strange things.
10. The fourth experiment proves …
A. that people deprived of sense stimulation go mad.
B. that people deprived of sense stimulation dream.
C. that people deprived of sense stimulation experience unreal things.
D. that people deprived of sens.-5 stimulation lack perceptual experience.

Part 4: Read the following passage and do the task following (20 pts)
VIEWS OF INTELLIGENCE ACROSS CULTURES
A In recent years, researchers have found that people in non-Western cultures often have ideas about
intelligence that are considerably different from those that have shaped Western intelligence tests.
This cultural bias may therefore work against certain groups of people. Researchers in cultural
differences in intelligence, however, face a major dilemma, namely: how can the need to compare
 people according to a standard measure be balanced with the need to assess them in the light of their
own values and concepts?
B For example, Richard Nesbitt of the University of Michigan concludes that East Asian and Western
cultures have developed cognitive styles that differ in fundamental ways, including how intelligence
is understood. People in Western cultures tend to view intelligence as a means for individuals to
devise categories and engage in rational debate, whereas Eastern cultures see it as a way for
members of a community to recognize contradiction and complexity and to play their social roles
successfully. This view is backed up by Sternberg and Shih-Ying, from the University of Taiwan,
whose research shows that Chinese conceptions of intelligence emphasize understanding and
relating to others, and knowing when to show or not show one’s intelligence.
C The distinction between East Asia and the West is just one of many distinctions that separate
different ways of thinking about intelligence. Robert Serpell spent a number of years studying
concepts of intelligence in rural African communities. He found that people in many African
communities, especially in those where Western-style schooling is still uncommon, tend to blur the
distinction between intelligence and social competence. In rural Zambia, for instance, the concept of
nzelu includes both cleverness and responsibility. Likewise, among the Luo people in rural Kenya,
it has been found that ideas about intelligence consist of four broad concepts. These are named paro
or practical thinking, luoro, which includes social qualities like respect and responsibility, winjo or
comprehension, and rieko. Only the fourth corresponds more or less to the Western idea of
intelligence.
D In another study in the same community, Sternberg and Grogorenko have found that children who
score highly on a test of knowledge about medicinal herbs, a test of practical intelligence, often
score poorly on tests of academic intelligence. This suggests that practical and academic
intelligence can develop independently of each other, and the values of a culture may shape the
direction in which a child’s intelligence develops.
It also tends to support a number of other studies which suggest that people who are unable to solve
complex problems in the abstract can often solve them when they are presented in a familiar
context. Ashley Maynard, for instance, now professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii,
conducted studies of cognitive development among children in a Mayan village in Mexico using toy
looms, spools of thread, and other materials drawn from the local environment. The research
suggested that the children’s development, could be validly compared to the progression described
by Western theories of development, but only by using materials and experimental designs based on
their own culture.
E The original hope of many cognitive psychologists was that a test could be developed that was
absent of cultural bias. However, there seems to be an increasing weight of evidence to suggest that
this is unlikely. Raven’s Progressive Matrices, for example, were originally advertised as ‘culture
free’ but are now recognized as culturally loaded. Such non-verbal intelligence tests are based on
cultural constructs which may not appear in a particular culture. It is doubtful whether cultural
comparisons of concepts of intelligence will ever enable us to move towards creating a test which
encompasses all aspects of intelligence as understood by all cultures. It seems even less likely that
such a test could be totally free of cultural imbalance somewhere.
The solution to the dilemma seems to lie more in accepting that cultural neutrality is unattainable
and that administering any valid intelligence test requires a deep familiarity with the relevant
culture’s values and practices.
Questions 1-5
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph A–E from the list of headings below (i-ix). There are
more headings than paragraphs. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
 List of Headings
i Research into African community life
ii Views about intelligence in African societies
iii The limitations of Western intelligence tests
iv The Chinese concept of intelligence
v The importance of cultural context in test design
vi The disadvantages of non-verbal intelligence tests
vii A comparison between Eastern and Western understanding of intelligence
viii Words for “intelligence” in African languages
ix The impossibility of a universal intelligence test
your answers
1. Section A ______
2. Section B ______
3. Section C ______
4. Section D ______
5. Section E ______

Questions 6-10
Look at the researchers in 6-10 and the list off findings below. Match each researcher with the correct
finding. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
Your answers
6. Ashley Maynard ______
7. Richard Nesbitt ______
8. Sternberg and Grogorenko ______
9. Sternberg and Shih-Ying ______
10. Robert Serpell ______
List of findings
A There is a clear relationship between intelligence and relationships with others in Chinese culture.
B Children frequently scoring well in academic tests score better in practical tests.
C The difference between intelligence and social competence is not distinct in many African
communities.
D Children frequently scoring well in practical tests score less well in academic tests.
E In experiments to measure cognitive development, there is a link between the materials used and the
test results.
F The connection between intelligence and social competence in many African communities is not
clear.
G The way cognition is viewed in East Asian cultures differs fundamentally from those in Western
cultures.
H Chinese culture sees revelations about one’s intelligence as part of intelligence.