READING IV

ASSIGNMENT 3

Please read the instructions carefully and write your answers on the answer sheet provided.
Do not leave any questions unanswered.

Part A: For questions number 1-7

Read the text below and the following statements. You have to check in the text whether the statements
are true. Do not use your own knowledge to answer the questions; the answer must come from the text.

Write:
- TRUE, if the text confirms the information.
- FALSE, if the text says the opposite of the statement.
- NOT GIVEN, if it is impossible to know from the text whether the statement is true or not.

The first one has been done for you as an example.

Statement Answer
Unemployment is now worse than it has TRUE
ever been over the last fourteen years. [The text says that unemployment is at a ’14-year
high’.]
McDonald’s is busy after school hours 1. _________
because young people are their main
customers.
In McDonald’s, customer satisfaction is 2. _________
partly dependent on who the customers
are served by.
The majority of McDonald’s employees 3. _________
are over 60.
The supermarkets Tesco, Asda, and 4. _________
Sainsbury’s are larger than Morrisons.
Morrisons supermarket is financially in 5. _________
a good position at the moment.
Two-thirds of the jobs at Morrison will 6. _________
be taken up by people between the ages
of 25 and 75.
Morrisons needs more people to work 7. _________
on their tills.

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Part B: For questions number 8-11
Read an advertisement below and answer the following questions.

In your opinion, why are the following phrases used?

8. ‘An experienced advisor’: _________

9. ‘Specialise’: _________

10. ‘Maximum compensation’: _________

11. ‘Fast and hassle-free’: _________

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Part C: For questions number 12 and 13
Read the passages below and choose the correct answer a, b, c, or d.

12. How does an artist train his eye? “First,” said Leonardo da Vinci, “learn perspective; then draw from
nature.” The self-taught eighteenth-century painter George Stubbs followed Leonardo’s advice. Like
Leonardo, he studied anatomy, but unlike Leonardo, instead of studying human anatomy, he
studied the anatomy of the horse. He dissected carcass after carcass, peeling away the five separate
layers of muscles, removing the organs, baring the veins and arteries and nerves. For 18 long months
he recorded his observations, and when he was done, he could paint horses muscle by muscle, as
they had never been painted before. Pretty decent work, for someone self-taught.

The primary purpose of the passage is to …

a. Explain a phenomenon
b. Describe a process
c. Urge a course of action
d. Argue against a practice

13. In 1979, when the World Health Organization declared that smallpox had finally been eradicated,
few, if any, people recollected the efforts of an eighteenth-century English aristocrat to combat the
then-fatal disease. As a young woman, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu had suffered severely from
smallpox. In Turkey, she observed the Eastern custom of inoculating people with a mild form of the
pox, there by immunizing them, a practice she later championed in England. The Turks, she wrote
home, even held house parties during which inoculated youngsters played together happily until
they came down with the pox, after which they convalesced together.

The primary purpose of this passage is to …

a. Celebrate the total eradication of smallpox.
b. Challenge the actions of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
c. Demonstrate that smallpox was a serious problem in the eighteenth century.
d. Call attention to a neglected historical figure.

Part D: For questions number 14-17

Read the passage below and answer the following questions.

One of the reasons Jurassic Park was so successful – as a novel and a blockbuster film – is that it
presented a plausible way to bring dinosaurs back to life. The idea that viable dinosaur DNA might be
retrieved from bloodsucking prehistoric insects seemed like a project that could actually succeed. Even
though the actual methodology is hopelessly flawed and would never work, the premise was science-ish
enough to let us suspend our disbelief and revel in the return of the dinosaurs.

Find the following words or phrases in the text above: blockbuster, hopelessly flawed, revel in.
Do they suggest a positive or a negative tone?

14. Blockbuster: _________

15. Hopelessly flawed: _________

16. Revel in: _________

17. What is the writer’s purpose in this paragraph?

a. To suggest that scientists should look to science fiction for inspiration
b. To argue that people may choose to believe the improbable in order to be entertained
c. To persuade us that art and science can be skilfully linked
d. To demonstrate that scientific research can provide a source of entertainment

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Part E: For questions number 18-25
Put the adjectives into the correct column, to show whether they suggest a positive or
negative tone.

Thorough accomplished efficient biased

harsh confusing monotonous realistic

Positive Tone Negative Tone

18. _________ 22. _________

19. _________ 23. _________

20. _________ 24. _________

21. _________ 25. _________

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