Full name: Ta Thi Thuy Hang Class: K13-English FLD Students code: 1067010012

Source:
Section 1: IELTS trainer. (35-39) Section 2: IELTS trainer. (35-39) Section 3: TOEFL IBT reading (66-67) Section 4: TOEFL IBT reading (26-27)

TEST
Endangered language
Worried about the loss of rainforest and the ozone layer? Well, neither of those is doing any worse than a large majority of the 6,000 to 7,000 languages that remain in use on Earth. One half of the survivors will almost certainly be gone by 2050, while 40% more will probably be well on their way out. In their place, almost all humans will speak one of handful of megalanguages Mandarin, English, Spanish. Linguists know what causes languages to disappear, but less often remarked is what happens on the way to disappearance: languages vocabularies, grammars and expressive potential all diminish as one language is replaced by another. Say a community goes over from speaking a creole, say Australian Nick Evans, a leading authority on Aboriginal languages, you leave behind a language where theres very fine vocabulary for the landscape. All that is gone in a creole. Youve just got a few words like gum tree or what ever. As speakers become less able to express the wealth of the knowledge that has filled ancestors lives with meaning over millennia, its no wonder that communities tend to become demoralised. If the losses are so huge, why are relatively few linguists combating the situation? Australian linguists, at least, have achieved a great deal in terms of preserving traditional languages. Australian governments began in the 1970s to support an initiative that has resulted in good documentation of most of the 130 remaining Aboriginal languages. In England, another Australian, Peter Austin, has directed one of the worlds most active efforts to limit language loss, at the university of London. Austin heads a programmer that has trained many documentary linguists in England as well as in language-loss hotpots such as West Africa and South America. At linguistics meetings in the US, where the endangered-language issue has of late been something of the flavor of the month, there is growing evidence that not all approaches to the preservation of languages will be particularly helpful. Some linguists are boasting, for example, of more and more sophisticated means of capturing languages: digital recording and storage, and internet and mobile phone technologies. But these are encouraging the quick dash style of recording trip: fly in, switch on digital recorder, fly home, download to hard drive, and store gathered material for future research. Thats not quite what some endangeredlanguage specialists have been seeking for more than years. Most loud and
2

untiring has been Michael Krauss, of the university of Alaska. He has often complained that linguists are playing with non-essentials while most of their raw data is disappearing. Who is to blame? That prominent linguist Noam Chomsky, say Knauss and many others. Or, more precisely, they blame those linguists who have been obsessed with his approaches. Linguists who go out into communities to study, document and describe languages, who draw conclusion about how languages work, have had so much influence that linguistics has largely ignored the continuing disappearance of languages. Chomsky, from his post at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been the great man of theoretical linguistics for far longer than he has been known as a political commentator. His landmark work of 1957 argues that all languages exhibit certain universal grammatical features, encoded in the human mind. American linguistics, in particular, have focused largely on theoretical concerns ever since, even while doubts have mounted about Chomsky universal. Austin and Co are in no doubt that because languages are unique, even if they do tend to have common underlying features, creating dictionaries and grammar requires prolonged and dedicated work. This requires that document linguistic observe not only languages structural subtleties, but also related social, historical and political factors. Such work calls for persistent funding of field scientists who may sometimes have to venture into harsh and even hazardous places. Once there, they may face difficulties such as community suspicion. Plenty of students continue to be drawn to the intellectual thrill of linguistics field work. Thats all the more reason to clear away barriers, contend Evans, Austin and others. The highest barrier, they agree, is that the linguistics professions emphasis on theory gradually wears down the enthusiasm of linguistics who work in communities. Chomsky disagrees. He has recently begun to speak in support of language preservation. But his linguistics, as opposed to humanitarian, argument is, lets say, unsentimental: the loss of language, he states, is much more of a tragedy for linguists whose interest are mostly theoretical, like me, than for linguistic who focus on describing specific languages, since it means the permanent loss of the most relevant data for general theoretical work. At the moment, few institutions award doctorates for such work, and that the way it should be, he reason. In linguistics, as in every other discipline, he believes that good descriptive work requires thorough theoretical understanding and should also contribute to building new theory.

Section 1
1. For questions 1-5 select:
True if the statement is true False if the statement is false No information if the information is not given in the passages 1. By 2050 only a small number of languages will be flourishing. 2. Australian academics efforts to record existing Aboriginal languages have been too limited. 3. The use of technology in language research is proving unsatisfactory in some respects. 4. Chomskys political views have overshadowed his academic work. 5. Documentary linguistics studies require long-term financial support. 6. Chomskys attitude to disappearing languages is too emotional.

Section 2. Complete each sentences with the correct ending, A-G, below. Write the correct letter, A-G with 1-5:
1. Linguists like Peter Austin believe that every language is unique. 2. Nick Evans suggests a community may resist attempts to save its language. 3. Many young researchers are interested in doing practical research. 4. Chomsky supports work in descriptive linguistics. A. B. C. D. E. F. G. Even though it is danger of disappearing Provided that it has a strong basis in theory Although it may share certain universal characteristics Because there is a practical advantage to it So long as a drawbacks are clearly understood In spite of the prevalence of theoretical linguistics Until they realize what is involve

Section 3 Hibernation
Hibernation is a special and deep sleep for some animals, such as bears, chipmunks and bats, to adapt to extreme cold during the winter. It is hard for
4

these animals to find enough food in the winter, so they must prepare for hibernating by eating a lot of food to gain body fat during the summer and autumn time. By relying on stored body fat, they can sleep in safe caves or dens. While hibernating, their body temperature becomes low and their heartbeat and breathing slow down. The reason they slow down their metabolism is to consume energy, stored as body fat, at a slow rate. One animal that some famously consider a hibernator is the bear. During a bears winter sleep state, the degree of metabolic depression is much less than what is observed in smaller mammals. Cold-blooded animals must stay in a warm environment to survive the winter. Snakes and many other reptiles find shelter in holes or burrows and spend the winter being dormant. Water makes a good shelter for some animals like frogs and turtles. When the weather gets cold, they move to the bottom of lakes and ponds. They make hide under rocks or logs and even in the mud. Cold water holds more oxygen than warm water and the frogs and turtles can breathe by absorbing it through their skin. This is a similar to hibernation. Insects also look for winter shelter in holes in the ground, under the bark of trees or deep inside rotting logs. How do these animals know it is time to hibernate? Recent research suggests that hibernating animals may have something in their blood and it causes hibernation as the day gets shorter and the temperature changes. How and why it happens are still a mystery. Nowadays, noise and vibration from vehicles, construction and the like awake hibernating animals, which may suffer severely or die as a result of premature awakening in times of food shortage.

Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D:

1. What is the main idea of the passage? A. Most animals sleep because they are cold-blooded. B. The body temperature of hibernating animals changes a lot in an irregular way. C. Hibernating enables some animals to survive winter conditions. D. It is healthy for animals to lose weight over winter by sleeping. 2. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information. A. Some animals must eat a lot and gain fat while hibernating.

B. Some animals get ready for hibernating by storing food in their places during the summer and autumn. C. Some animals get ready for hibernating by gaining fat during the warm seasons. D. Hibernation makes some animals lose a lot of weight, so they are very hungry in the rest of the years. 3. The word dormant in paragraph 2 is closest to: A. Warm B. Inactive C. Diligent D. Interesting 4. The word they in paragraph 2 refers to: A. Chipmunks B. Snakes and other reptiles C. Some animals D. Frogs and turtles 5. According to the passage, which of the following not true: A. Cold-blood animals like snakes and other reptiles spend winter in a warm place sleeping to survive . B. The degree of metabolic depression in small mammals is bigger than what is seen in bigger ones like a bear in hibernation. C. Researchers discovered how hibernating animals know the time they should begin hibernation. D. If some hibernating animals wake up early before the winter is over, they might die because of lack of food.

Section 4 Beavers
Beavers are the second largest rodents in the world. Their distinctive broad, flat tails and prominent teeth make beavers easy to spot. They originally came from Europe and North America. Beavers use their strong jaws and big teeth to cut down trees. They use the trees to form dams on streams and rivers. Dams block water, so the
6

rivers flood and form ponds. The flooding can cause some damage, but the long-term effects are very beneficial for the environment. The benefits of beavers-dams are cleaner water and increased wetlands, which are important homes for other animals. Dams also control seasonal flooding of the rivers and help to do maintain a steady water level year-round. Ponds that are formed by dams help the beavers catch fish and protect their home. Beavers live in a lodge out of wood. It is located in the middle of the pond. They build an underwater entrance to the lodge, and this makes it harder for predators to attack them. Even though it is built in the pond, the inside of the lodge is dry. Usually the lodge has two room-one room is foe the beavers to dry off after diving in the pond to enter, and the other room is where the beavers actually live.

Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D:

1. The word prominent in paragraph 1 most like means: A. Noticeable B. Natural C. Common D. Proper 2. The word beneficial in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to: A. Changeable B. Invaluable C. Advantageous D. Enormous 3. The word which in paragraph 2 refers to: A. Benefits B. Beaver-dams C. Water D. Wetlands 4. The word it in paragraph 3 refers to: A. Wood B. Beaver C. Lodge D. Fish

Key
Section 1 1-T 2-F Section 2 1-C 2-A Section 3 1- C 2-C Section 4 1-A 2-C 3-T 3-F 3- B 3-D 4-NI 4-B 4- D 4-C 5- C 5-T 6-F

10