SECTION B SKIMMING AND SCANNING
In this section there are seven passage followed by ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers on your Answer Sheet.
TEXT E
First read the question.
51. The passage mainly discusses ____
A. Flight International.
B. world accidents.
C. pilot error accidents.
D. an aviation magazine.
Now go though Text E quickly to answer question 51.
Airplane crashes caused by pilot miscalculation during descent killed 640 people in 1997, more than in any previous year, according to a new report out last week. Flight International, a respected aviation magazine, said its survey showed such crashes remained the biggest cause of airline passenger deaths. Major airlines were still vulnerable to such accidents, despite improved technology, it said. The accidents, known officially as "controlled flights into terrain," or CFITs, happened in clouds or darkness, usually on the descent towards an airport. The crew members made a navigational error or descended too low, or both, so that the aircraft hit the ground without the crew realizing the danger. Special efforts had been made in recent years to reduce CFITs, Flight International said. "Although small carriers and non-passenger operations tend, in most year, to account for the majority of the CFIT accidents, major carriers are manifestly vulnerable," the magazine said. Flight International added that CFITs were thought to be responsible for the Korean Air Boeing 747 crash in Guam in August and the Garuda Airbus A300 accident in Sumatra, Indonesia, in September. Together, the accidents accounted for 462 deaths. The previous record for CFITs in a single year was 582 in 1989. The magazine said there were51 fatal airline accidents in 1997 resulting in 1,306 deaths. That compared with an annual average of 49 fatal accidents and 1,234 deaths for the preceding decade. Areas with normally good safety records such as Western Europe, Australia, North America and the Middle East had a safe year, Flight International said. Africa had no airline fatalities, and Latin America only one, but the southern part of the former Soviet Union, parts of Asia and the Asian Pacific regions fared less well.
51. The passage mainly discusses ____
A) Flight International.
B) world accidents.
C) pilot error accidents.
D) an aviation magazine.
TEXT F
First read the questions.
52. The passage focuses on ____.
A. the location of the valley.
B. the temperature of the valley.
C. the rivers, animals and plants of the valley.
D. the general features of the valley.
Now go through TEXT F quickly and answer question 52.
Death Valley is an arid, depressed, desert region, southeastern California. It was given its name by one of 18 survivors of a party of 30 attempting in 1849 to find a shortcut to the California goldfield. Much of the valley is below sea level, and near Badwater at 86 meters below sea level, is the lowest point in the western hemisphere. Death Valley National Monument (established 1933) has an area of 8368.1 sq km and incorporates the valley and surrounding mountains. The valley is from 6 to 26 km wide and about 255 km long and is almost entirely enclosed by mountain ranges, volcanic in origin, bare and brilliantly colored. The Panamint Range on the west, which rises to a maximum altitude of 3367 m in Telescope Peak, shuts out the moist Pacific winds. On the east are the peaks of the Amargosa Range. The summer temperatures in Death Valley, one of the hottest regions known, exceed 51.7 C in the shade and rarely fall below 21.1 C. The National Weather Service recorded 56.7 C IN 1913, the highest temperature ever recorded in the US. Average rainfall in a normal year is less than 51 mm. Sandstorms and dust whirlwinds of several hours duration are common. Several watercourses enter the valley, among them the Amargosa River from the south and Furnace Creek from the east, but it is only after heavy rains, which are rare, that they contain water. The lowest parts of the valley floor are salt flats, devoid of vegetation; higher portions contain a mixture of sand and salt grains, occasionally forming dunes. The western side of the valley floor is bordered by stunted mesquite, and in a marsh in the northern section a growth of tall, coarse grass is found; the east and west slopes have a sparse vegetation of cacti and desert shrubs and grasses. Animal life is confined to a few species of desert reptiles, such as horned toads and lizards and such mammals are as rabbits, rats, and the desert bighorn sheep. Gold has been found in Death Valley, and silver, copper, and lead have been taken in paying quantities. The famous borax deposits of Death Valley were first mined in the 1880s.
52. The passage focuses on ____.
A) the location of the valley.
B) the temperature of the valley.
C) the rivers, animals and plants of the valley.
D) the general features of the valley.
TEXT G
First read the following question.
53. The primary purpose of the passage is to ____.
A. discuss the Japanese Prime Minister.
B. discuss the coined words in the recent Japanese language.
C. deal with language problem.
D. deal with word formation.
Now go through TEXT G quickly and answer question 53.
Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was famous for making his own phone calls, ringing up advertisers, friends, politicians and people he read about in newspapers. He picked up his push-button phone —— called a "pushu-phone" in Japanese —— punched in the number and announced," This is Obuchi." After Obuchis habits became known, it wasnt long before someone coined the word "buchi-phones." So was born a Japanese word. More than 6,000 words and phrases are added to the language each year —— most of them short-lived —— and used in a stream so rapid that people complain they often cannot figure out what is being said. One word that is now acknowledged as a permanent part of the lexicon is "risutora", the Japanese version of "restructure". Its most common meaning here is to be fired or pressured to quit as a company downsizes. "He was restructured" is heard frequently these days. Teenagers are a major source of the linguistic additions, and, perhaps not surprisingly, adults say they are particularly difficult to understand. All teens seem to know that "one-girl", which translates as "one-cut", is a way of communicating with friends by cell phone without paying the phone company. The caller lets the receiving phone ring once, then cuts it off. The recipient sees the number that the call came from, recognizes a friend and perhaps sends a one-giri back. Many of these words are in English, often shortened and always pronounced according to the Japanese syllabic alphabet, which does not include, for example, "th" or any single consonant except "n.". The Japanese words derived from English are not always recognizable. "Game" is "geimu", "animation" is "anime". From "poketo (pocket)" and "monsuta (monster)" the Japanese took "poke" and "mon" to make, of course, "Pokemon". Fumio Inoue, professor of social linguistics at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, said:" I do think that the number of new words reflects the degree of modernization of the culture. Thats the first reason. The second is that we have a precedent for absorbing language from others." The Japanese language is a mix of Chinese characters, words with Japanese roots and words from other language. The distinction between words that were originally Japanese and those that came from Western language is eroding. The Japanese word for "shame" is "shuchi". Young people are adding the English ending "less." So Japanese now say "shuchi-lesu" —— which is what many people seem so feel about twisting and stretching their language.
53. The primary purpose of the passage is to ____.
A) discuss the Japanese Prime Minister.
B) discuss the coined words in the recent Japanese language.
C) deal with language problem.
D) deal with word formation.
TEXT H First read the following question 54.
The novel "Generation X" was written mainly for ____.
A. card games.
B. economy.
C. finance.
D. younger generation.
Now go through TEXT H quickly and answer question 54.
Douglas Coupland coined not only the term for a generation with novel "Generation X" but others like "Mcjob" and "veal-fattening pen". All of them describe demoralizing prospects facing twenty-somethings. But he is growing up. At 38, 10 years after he penned his culture-defining novel, Coupland now has an agent and a new book, "Missing Wyoming", with the new publishers Knopf/Pantheon in the United States and Random House in Canada. But even though he is hurtling toward his 40s and has several books under his belt, he is still identified as the spokesman for careless twenty —— and thirty —— somethings drowning in consumerism. "Generation X" is a field guide to and for the vast generation born in the 1970s and the 1980s —— a generation that has been incorrectly labeled "postponed" and "indifferent". Its a fiction about a wildly speeding subculture with no place to go. "Its a calling card. It was written when the economy was really in the toilet, so a lot of the dialogue about identity got clumsily smashed together with financial futures and expectations", he said. But Coupland has not turned his back on directionless souls. The craving for spirituality and human connection live on in his latest novel. A smart, funny and fast-paced mystery with a heartfelt American romance at its core. "Missing Wyoming" is a tale of a has-been movie producer, John Johnson, and a former TV star and child beauty queen winner, Susan Colgate. Susan refuses to spend on more day peddling herself for cheesy TV sitcom parts and takes advantage of a very weird situation to disappear. John turns his back on a pleasure-seeking life making blockbuster action films. At a point in their lives when glamour and fame seem to be a thing of the past, both decide to disappear. Assisting Susan and John are a former beauty pageant mom, a pair of suburban intellects, a refugee, a variety of other 20th century Americans who all share the dream of one day taking center stage. In the novel they are lost souls looking for love in the celebrity-obsessed landscape of Los Angeles when they fatefully connect. Born on a Canadian NATO base in Badensollingen, Germany, the soft-spoken Coupland spends much of his time in relative solitude at his home in Vancouver, where he has lived most his life. Coupland says he is pleased the Generation X fame lives on in younger audiences because people have little guidance when it comes to steering through their terrible 20s. "Your 20s suck. I wish someone would have told me that. We prepare people in this culture how to do an algebraic equation but no one ever teaches you how to deal with loneliness and worrying", he said. "Id like to tell people in their 20s not to worry so much." Which is what he does through his novel that increasingly are reaching a younger readership —— as evidence by those who came to his reading at Torontos Glen Gould Theatre. "There are these kids who really identify with this stuff, which is so specific to my own life, and Vancouver. The fact that anyone can relate to it outside of my own group of friends really surprises me," Coupland said. "There again, I always assume that whatever book I am doing is going to be the one that no one understand".
54. The novel "Generation X" was written mainly for ____.
A) card games.
B) economy.
C) finance.
D) younger generation.
TEXT I
First read the following questions.
555. Which is not one of the 6 principles discussed in the book?
A. living with integrity.
B. building a great management team.
C. inspiring employees to greatness.
D. being married to their original spouse.
56. Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin are ____.
A. persons whose job is to recruit staff.
B. sociologists.
C. CEO.
D. leaders.
Now go through TEXT I quickly and answer questions 55 and 56.
What males a leader? Thats the question star headhunter Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin try to answer in their recent book, "Lessons from the Top: The Search for Americas Best Business Leaders." The six principles shared by top business leaders and discussed in the book are: Living with integrity, developing a winning strategy or "big idea", building a great management team, inspiring employees to greatness, creating a flexible and responsible organization and using reinforcing management systems. Citrin and Neff elaborated on the six principles in a recent Business Week interview. The most important one for business leaders is passion about what they are doing." The leaders we interviewed for the book loved to talk about their jobs." "Also, the high-level jobs today are so enormously demanding that successful executives mu;xt have a high energy level. They work an average of 65 hours per week. When the passion and drive ebb, thats when you know its time for that person to move on," said Neff. Top leaders are clear thinkers. They are focused, know where they are heading, and are able to communicate with a wide audience. Todays successful leaders know more about the team approach than did their predecessors. "It wasnt too many years ago that the dictatorial approach, the command-and-control management style, was accepted. Today, its more about working through people, being more of a leader and empowering other executives on the team to carry out the mission," said Neff. Citrin and Neff are not pretending to be sociologists, but it is clear that the dynamics of the labor market have given more power to talented employees. People in an organization often have the exact same information at about the same time as a person at the top. so no more can one tale for granted that information is power. People often say it is difficult to create a good balance between work and family. Some feel you can be successful in work or with your family, but not both. But the reality seems to be that a strong family life and success on the home front actually contribute to professional success. Many of the CEOs interviewed by Citrin talk about the role their spouses play in their success. Of the 50 interviewed in the work, 42 are still married to their original spouse —— a sharp contract with the national divorce rate in the United States.
55. Which is not one of the 6 principles discussed in the book?
A) living with integrity.
B) building a great management team.
C) inspiring employees to greatness.
D) being married to their original spouse.
56. Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin are ____.
A) persons whose job is to recruit staff.
B) sociologists.
C) CEO.
D) leaders.
TEXT J
First read the following questions.
57. Professional accreditation exists in the following fields or programs except ____
A. medicine.
B. business.
C. religion.
D. engineering.
58. In what way can one find the best institutions in the USA?
A. To define ones academic and career goals, as well as personal preferences about the campus environment.
B. To check whether or not institutions are recognized by the COPA.
C. To avoid institutions that seem too anxious to enroll foreign students.
D. All of the above.
In this section there are seven passage followed by ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers on your Answer Sheet.
TEXT E
First read the question.
51. The passage mainly discusses ____
A. Flight International.
B. world accidents.
C. pilot error accidents.
D. an aviation magazine.
Now go though Text E quickly to answer question 51.
Airplane crashes caused by pilot miscalculation during descent killed 640 people in 1997, more than in any previous year, according to a new report out last week. Flight International, a respected aviation magazine, said its survey showed such crashes remained the biggest cause of airline passenger deaths. Major airlines were still vulnerable to such accidents, despite improved technology, it said. The accidents, known officially as "controlled flights into terrain," or CFITs, happened in clouds or darkness, usually on the descent towards an airport. The crew members made a navigational error or descended too low, or both, so that the aircraft hit the ground without the crew realizing the danger. Special efforts had been made in recent years to reduce CFITs, Flight International said. "Although small carriers and non-passenger operations tend, in most year, to account for the majority of the CFIT accidents, major carriers are manifestly vulnerable," the magazine said. Flight International added that CFITs were thought to be responsible for the Korean Air Boeing 747 crash in Guam in August and the Garuda Airbus A300 accident in Sumatra, Indonesia, in September. Together, the accidents accounted for 462 deaths. The previous record for CFITs in a single year was 582 in 1989. The magazine said there were51 fatal airline accidents in 1997 resulting in 1,306 deaths. That compared with an annual average of 49 fatal accidents and 1,234 deaths for the preceding decade. Areas with normally good safety records such as Western Europe, Australia, North America and the Middle East had a safe year, Flight International said. Africa had no airline fatalities, and Latin America only one, but the southern part of the former Soviet Union, parts of Asia and the Asian Pacific regions fared less well.
51. The passage mainly discusses ____
A) Flight International.
B) world accidents.
C) pilot error accidents.
D) an aviation magazine.
TEXT F
First read the questions.
52. The passage focuses on ____.
A. the location of the valley.
B. the temperature of the valley.
C. the rivers, animals and plants of the valley.
D. the general features of the valley.
Now go through TEXT F quickly and answer question 52.
Death Valley is an arid, depressed, desert region, southeastern California. It was given its name by one of 18 survivors of a party of 30 attempting in 1849 to find a shortcut to the California goldfield. Much of the valley is below sea level, and near Badwater at 86 meters below sea level, is the lowest point in the western hemisphere. Death Valley National Monument (established 1933) has an area of 8368.1 sq km and incorporates the valley and surrounding mountains. The valley is from 6 to 26 km wide and about 255 km long and is almost entirely enclosed by mountain ranges, volcanic in origin, bare and brilliantly colored. The Panamint Range on the west, which rises to a maximum altitude of 3367 m in Telescope Peak, shuts out the moist Pacific winds. On the east are the peaks of the Amargosa Range. The summer temperatures in Death Valley, one of the hottest regions known, exceed 51.7 C in the shade and rarely fall below 21.1 C. The National Weather Service recorded 56.7 C IN 1913, the highest temperature ever recorded in the US. Average rainfall in a normal year is less than 51 mm. Sandstorms and dust whirlwinds of several hours duration are common. Several watercourses enter the valley, among them the Amargosa River from the south and Furnace Creek from the east, but it is only after heavy rains, which are rare, that they contain water. The lowest parts of the valley floor are salt flats, devoid of vegetation; higher portions contain a mixture of sand and salt grains, occasionally forming dunes. The western side of the valley floor is bordered by stunted mesquite, and in a marsh in the northern section a growth of tall, coarse grass is found; the east and west slopes have a sparse vegetation of cacti and desert shrubs and grasses. Animal life is confined to a few species of desert reptiles, such as horned toads and lizards and such mammals are as rabbits, rats, and the desert bighorn sheep. Gold has been found in Death Valley, and silver, copper, and lead have been taken in paying quantities. The famous borax deposits of Death Valley were first mined in the 1880s.
52. The passage focuses on ____.
A) the location of the valley.
B) the temperature of the valley.
C) the rivers, animals and plants of the valley.
D) the general features of the valley.
TEXT G
First read the following question.
53. The primary purpose of the passage is to ____.
A. discuss the Japanese Prime Minister.
B. discuss the coined words in the recent Japanese language.
C. deal with language problem.
D. deal with word formation.
Now go through TEXT G quickly and answer question 53.
Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was famous for making his own phone calls, ringing up advertisers, friends, politicians and people he read about in newspapers. He picked up his push-button phone —— called a "pushu-phone" in Japanese —— punched in the number and announced," This is Obuchi." After Obuchis habits became known, it wasnt long before someone coined the word "buchi-phones." So was born a Japanese word. More than 6,000 words and phrases are added to the language each year —— most of them short-lived —— and used in a stream so rapid that people complain they often cannot figure out what is being said. One word that is now acknowledged as a permanent part of the lexicon is "risutora", the Japanese version of "restructure". Its most common meaning here is to be fired or pressured to quit as a company downsizes. "He was restructured" is heard frequently these days. Teenagers are a major source of the linguistic additions, and, perhaps not surprisingly, adults say they are particularly difficult to understand. All teens seem to know that "one-girl", which translates as "one-cut", is a way of communicating with friends by cell phone without paying the phone company. The caller lets the receiving phone ring once, then cuts it off. The recipient sees the number that the call came from, recognizes a friend and perhaps sends a one-giri back. Many of these words are in English, often shortened and always pronounced according to the Japanese syllabic alphabet, which does not include, for example, "th" or any single consonant except "n.". The Japanese words derived from English are not always recognizable. "Game" is "geimu", "animation" is "anime". From "poketo (pocket)" and "monsuta (monster)" the Japanese took "poke" and "mon" to make, of course, "Pokemon". Fumio Inoue, professor of social linguistics at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, said:" I do think that the number of new words reflects the degree of modernization of the culture. Thats the first reason. The second is that we have a precedent for absorbing language from others." The Japanese language is a mix of Chinese characters, words with Japanese roots and words from other language. The distinction between words that were originally Japanese and those that came from Western language is eroding. The Japanese word for "shame" is "shuchi". Young people are adding the English ending "less." So Japanese now say "shuchi-lesu" —— which is what many people seem so feel about twisting and stretching their language.
53. The primary purpose of the passage is to ____.
A) discuss the Japanese Prime Minister.
B) discuss the coined words in the recent Japanese language.
C) deal with language problem.
D) deal with word formation.
TEXT H First read the following question 54.
The novel "Generation X" was written mainly for ____.
A. card games.
B. economy.
C. finance.
D. younger generation.
Now go through TEXT H quickly and answer question 54.
Douglas Coupland coined not only the term for a generation with novel "Generation X" but others like "Mcjob" and "veal-fattening pen". All of them describe demoralizing prospects facing twenty-somethings. But he is growing up. At 38, 10 years after he penned his culture-defining novel, Coupland now has an agent and a new book, "Missing Wyoming", with the new publishers Knopf/Pantheon in the United States and Random House in Canada. But even though he is hurtling toward his 40s and has several books under his belt, he is still identified as the spokesman for careless twenty —— and thirty —— somethings drowning in consumerism. "Generation X" is a field guide to and for the vast generation born in the 1970s and the 1980s —— a generation that has been incorrectly labeled "postponed" and "indifferent". Its a fiction about a wildly speeding subculture with no place to go. "Its a calling card. It was written when the economy was really in the toilet, so a lot of the dialogue about identity got clumsily smashed together with financial futures and expectations", he said. But Coupland has not turned his back on directionless souls. The craving for spirituality and human connection live on in his latest novel. A smart, funny and fast-paced mystery with a heartfelt American romance at its core. "Missing Wyoming" is a tale of a has-been movie producer, John Johnson, and a former TV star and child beauty queen winner, Susan Colgate. Susan refuses to spend on more day peddling herself for cheesy TV sitcom parts and takes advantage of a very weird situation to disappear. John turns his back on a pleasure-seeking life making blockbuster action films. At a point in their lives when glamour and fame seem to be a thing of the past, both decide to disappear. Assisting Susan and John are a former beauty pageant mom, a pair of suburban intellects, a refugee, a variety of other 20th century Americans who all share the dream of one day taking center stage. In the novel they are lost souls looking for love in the celebrity-obsessed landscape of Los Angeles when they fatefully connect. Born on a Canadian NATO base in Badensollingen, Germany, the soft-spoken Coupland spends much of his time in relative solitude at his home in Vancouver, where he has lived most his life. Coupland says he is pleased the Generation X fame lives on in younger audiences because people have little guidance when it comes to steering through their terrible 20s. "Your 20s suck. I wish someone would have told me that. We prepare people in this culture how to do an algebraic equation but no one ever teaches you how to deal with loneliness and worrying", he said. "Id like to tell people in their 20s not to worry so much." Which is what he does through his novel that increasingly are reaching a younger readership —— as evidence by those who came to his reading at Torontos Glen Gould Theatre. "There are these kids who really identify with this stuff, which is so specific to my own life, and Vancouver. The fact that anyone can relate to it outside of my own group of friends really surprises me," Coupland said. "There again, I always assume that whatever book I am doing is going to be the one that no one understand".
54. The novel "Generation X" was written mainly for ____.
A) card games.
B) economy.
C) finance.
D) younger generation.
TEXT I
First read the following questions.
555. Which is not one of the 6 principles discussed in the book?
A. living with integrity.
B. building a great management team.
C. inspiring employees to greatness.
D. being married to their original spouse.
56. Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin are ____.
A. persons whose job is to recruit staff.
B. sociologists.
C. CEO.
D. leaders.
Now go through TEXT I quickly and answer questions 55 and 56.
What males a leader? Thats the question star headhunter Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin try to answer in their recent book, "Lessons from the Top: The Search for Americas Best Business Leaders." The six principles shared by top business leaders and discussed in the book are: Living with integrity, developing a winning strategy or "big idea", building a great management team, inspiring employees to greatness, creating a flexible and responsible organization and using reinforcing management systems. Citrin and Neff elaborated on the six principles in a recent Business Week interview. The most important one for business leaders is passion about what they are doing." The leaders we interviewed for the book loved to talk about their jobs." "Also, the high-level jobs today are so enormously demanding that successful executives mu;xt have a high energy level. They work an average of 65 hours per week. When the passion and drive ebb, thats when you know its time for that person to move on," said Neff. Top leaders are clear thinkers. They are focused, know where they are heading, and are able to communicate with a wide audience. Todays successful leaders know more about the team approach than did their predecessors. "It wasnt too many years ago that the dictatorial approach, the command-and-control management style, was accepted. Today, its more about working through people, being more of a leader and empowering other executives on the team to carry out the mission," said Neff. Citrin and Neff are not pretending to be sociologists, but it is clear that the dynamics of the labor market have given more power to talented employees. People in an organization often have the exact same information at about the same time as a person at the top. so no more can one tale for granted that information is power. People often say it is difficult to create a good balance between work and family. Some feel you can be successful in work or with your family, but not both. But the reality seems to be that a strong family life and success on the home front actually contribute to professional success. Many of the CEOs interviewed by Citrin talk about the role their spouses play in their success. Of the 50 interviewed in the work, 42 are still married to their original spouse —— a sharp contract with the national divorce rate in the United States.
55. Which is not one of the 6 principles discussed in the book?
A) living with integrity.
B) building a great management team.
C) inspiring employees to greatness.
D) being married to their original spouse.
56. Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin are ____.
A) persons whose job is to recruit staff.
B) sociologists.
C) CEO.
D) leaders.
TEXT J
First read the following questions.
57. Professional accreditation exists in the following fields or programs except ____
A. medicine.
B. business.
C. religion.
D. engineering.
58. In what way can one find the best institutions in the USA?
A. To define ones academic and career goals, as well as personal preferences about the campus environment.
B. To check whether or not institutions are recognized by the COPA.
C. To avoid institutions that seem too anxious to enroll foreign students.
D. All of the above.