KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN, KEBUDAYAAN, RISET DAN TEKNOLOGI

UNIVERSITAS SRIWIJAYA
UPT BAHASA
Jalan Srijaya Negara Bukit Besar Palembang Telp./Fax. (0711) 354981
Jalan Raya Palembang-Prabumulih KM. 32 Inderalaya Telp. (0711) 580064
e-mail: uptbahasa@unsri.ac.id – suliet.unsri.ac.id

TASK 1
Directions:
1. Before you talk, mention your name and your student number (if applicable).
2. Choose one of the passages you are interested in below. Record a video of yours while reading aloud
the provided text. Read clearly and accurately.
3. The video lasts for no more than three (3) minutes. Be seated in a conducive place. Avoid the
unwanted noises during the recording.
4. After being recorded, upload your video in your Youtube account. Embed the link and share to
your instructors. (Remember: Set your Youtube privacy into public)
5. The task is submitted in the allotted time. You are supposed to have no score if you are late handing
in your task.
6. Good luck.

Passage 1
However, despite the beliefs of these 17-21 million people, there is no evidence that accidents are
more likely to happen on Friday the 13th. On the contrary, some studies have shown there are actually fewer
accidents on Friday the 13th. A recent report completed by a Dutch insurance company showed that there
were fewer incidents of fires and theft on Fridays that fell on the 13th than on any other Fridays in the same
year. It is highly probable that this reduction in accidents owes itself to the fear of Friday the 13th itself.
If people are more cautious on Friday the 13th, then there are likely to be fewer accidents. If, then,
there is no significant evidence that Friday the 13th is any more dangerous than any other day of the year,
why do friggatriskaidekaphobics remain convinced of its unluckiness? While the historical or folk traditions
discussed earlier may have something to do with this belief, people may also use associational links to justify
their superstitions. If a friggatriskaidekaphobic loses his wallet on Tuesday the 21st, for example, he would
probably not assign any meaning to the date on which this event occurred. If the same individual lost his
wallet on Friday the 13th, however, he might be likely to conclude that the inauspicious nature of Friday the
13th was at fault.

Passage 2
Complementary and alternative medicine, which includes a range of practices outside of conventional
medicine such as herbs, homeopathy, massage therapy, yoga, and acupuncture, hold increasing appeal for
Americans. In fact, according to one estimate, 42% of Americans have used alternative therapies. In all age
groups, the use of unconventional health care practices has steadily increased in the last 30 years, and the
trend is likely to continue, although people born before 1945 are the least likely to turn to these therapies.
Why have so many patients turned to alternative therapies? Many are frustrated by the time constraints
of managed care and alienated by conventional medicine’s focus on technology. Others feel that a holistic
approach to health care better reflects their beliefs and values. Others seek therapies that relieve symptoms
associated with chronic disease; symptoms that mainstream medicine cannot treat.
Some alternative therapies have even crossed the line into mainstream medicine, as scientific
investigation has confirmed their safety and efficacy. For example, physicians may currently prescribe
acupuncture for pain management or to control the nausea associated with chemotherapy. Additionally,
many U.S. medical schools teach courses in alternative therapies, and many health insurance companies
offer some alternative medicine benefits.

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 KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN, KEBUDAYAAN, RISET DAN TEKNOLOGI
UNIVERSITAS SRIWIJAYA
UPT BAHASA
Jalan Srijaya Negara Bukit Besar Palembang Telp./Fax. (0711) 354981
Jalan Raya Palembang-Prabumulih KM. 32 Inderalaya Telp. (0711) 580064
e-mail: uptbahasa@unsri.ac.id – suliet.unsri.ac.id

TASK 2
Directions:
1. Before you talk, mention your name and your student number (if applicable).
2. Choose one of the passages you are interested in below. Record a video of yours while retelling the
passage you are reading. Speak loudly, clearly and accurately.
3. The video lasts for no more than three (3) minutes. Be seated in a conducive place. Avoid the
unwanted noises during the recording.
4. After being recorded, upload your video in your Youtube account. Embed the link and share to
your instructors. (Remember: Set your Youtube privacy into public)
5. The task is submitted in the allotted time. You are supposed to have no score if you are late handing
in your task.
6. Good luck.

Passage 3
Among predatory dinosaurs, few flesh-eaters were bigger, faster and nastier than the "tyrant lizard" of
popular imagination, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. At least, that is what we have been led tobelieve.
Now research suggests that, far from being the Ferrari of dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus Rex, whose
ferocious reputation has fascinated generations of schoolchildren, was in fact a cumbersome creature with a
usual running speed of twenty-five kilometres an hour. This is a mere snail's pace compared with modern
animals such as thecheetah. Unlike some of the predators of today's African savannah, which can change
direction almost immediately, the dinosaur would have had to turn slowly or risk tumbling over. And while
a human can spin forty-five degrees in a twentieth of a second, a Tyrannosaurus would have taken as much
as two seconds, as it would have been hampered by its long tail. Thankfully, however, all its prey, such as
triceratops, would have been afflicted with the same lack of speed and agility.
The findings were reached after researchers used computer modelling and biomechanical calculations
to work out the dinosaur's speed, agility and weight. They based their calculations on measurements taken
from a fossil dinosaur representative of an average Tyrannosaurus and concluded the creatures probably
weighed between six and eight tonnes. Thankfully, however, all its prey, such as triceratops, would have
been afflicted with the same lack of speed and agility.
The findings were reached after researchers used computer modelling and biomechanical calculations
to work out the dinosaur's speed, agility and weight. They based their calculations on measurements taken
from a fossil dinosaur representative of an average Tyrannosaurus and concluded the creatures probably
weighed between six and eight tonnes.
Calculations of the leg muscles suggest that the animal would have had a top speed of forty kilometres
an hour, which is nothing compared to a cheetah’s one hundred kilometres an hour. It is sobering to reflect,
though, that an Olympic sprinter runs at about thirty-five kilometres an hour, not sufficient to outrun a
Tyrannosaurus, should Man have been around at that time!

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 KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN, KEBUDAYAAN, RISET DAN TEKNOLOGI
UNIVERSITAS SRIWIJAYA
UPT BAHASA
Jalan Srijaya Negara Bukit Besar Palembang Telp./Fax. (0711) 354981
Jalan Raya Palembang-Prabumulih KM. 32 Inderalaya Telp. (0711) 580064
e-mail: uptbahasa@unsri.ac.id – suliet.unsri.ac.id

Passage 4
"Research: Change in walking may indicate cognitive decline" By Janice Lloyd
Subtle changes in the way a person walks can be an early warning sign of cognitive decline and a
signal for advanced testing, according to research out at the Alzheimer's Association International
Conference 2012.
The findings are the first to link a physical symptom to disease, which up until now, required doctors
to begin a diagnosis by focusing on cognition and administering lengthy neurological exams. The evidence
in the five studies is "robust," say experts, adding walking changes can occur even before cognition decline
surfaces. The presentation on the opening day of the weeklong meetings follows a government plan
announced in May to help train doctors to detect the disease earlier and to find a cure by 2025.
"Monitoring deterioration and other changes in a person's gait is ideal because it doesn't require any
expensive technology or take a lot of time to assess,'' says Bill Thies, chief medical and scientific officer for
the Alzheimer's Association.
The disease affects 5.4 million mostly older people in the USA, numbers expected to spike to 16
million in 2050 as the Baby Boomers age. Nearly 5,000 researchers are attending the meetings in Vancouver,
where dozens of studies will address new treatments currently being tested in trials and how lifestyle
influences the disease.
"Walking and movements require a perfect and simultaneous integration of multiple areas of the
brain,'' says Rodolfo Savica, author of a study done at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Walking changes occur because the disease interferes with the circuitry between these areas of brain.
Savica ruled out other diseases (Parkinson's, arthritis) as possible causes of gait change.
In the Mayo Clinic study, researchers measured the stride length, cadence and velocity of more than
1,341 participants through a computerized gait instrument at two or more visits roughly 15 months apart.
They found that study participants with lower cadence, velocity and length of stride experienced
significantly larger declines in global cognition, memory and executive function.
"These changes support a possible role of gait changes as an early predictor of cognitive impairment,''
Savica says.
Another large study of 1,153 adults with a mean age of 78 done by researchers at the Basel Mobility
Center in Basel Switzerland found gait became "slower and more variable as cognition decline progressed.''
Participants were divided into groups based on their cognitive diagnoses: cognitively healthy, mild
cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's dementia. Gait was measured using a walkway with nearly
30,000 integrated sensors.
"Those with Alzheimer's dementia walked slower than those with MCI, who in turn walked slower
that those who were cognitively healthy,'' says Stephanie Bridenbaugh, lead researcher.
Bridenbaugh says analysis of walking could also be used to show if treatments to treat the disease are
working.
"At the annual wellness visit required by Medicare, a physician could add a walking test to the
checklist without adding a lot of extra time,'' says Thies.
Yet, one of the study's researchers said that one annual test wouldn't work with everyone.
"You'd be surprised how many people say to me 'He doesn't walk that well at home,' when I give them
a gait test in the office,'' says physician Lisa Silbert.
Silbert conducted research on 19 dementia-free volunteers enrolled in the Intelligent Systems for
Assessment of Aging Changes study at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. They measured
gait speed during MRIs and gait speeds at home. Participants walked faster when measured once in person

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 KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN, KEBUDAYAAN, RISET DAN TEKNOLOGI
UNIVERSITAS SRIWIJAYA
UPT BAHASA
Jalan Srijaya Negara Bukit Besar Palembang Telp./Fax. (0711) 354981
Jalan Raya Palembang-Prabumulih KM. 32 Inderalaya Telp. (0711) 580064
e-mail: uptbahasa@unsri.ac.id – suliet.unsri.ac.id

than when walking in their home. Slower in-home walking speed was associated with smaller total brain
size. Dementias cause brain shrinkage.
"Walking speed taken at a single time point may overestimate the walking abilities in the elderly,'' she
says.

Passage 5
By the 1920’s in the United States, great change had been made in daily life by an accumulation of
inventions that had been produced in increasing numbers since the Civil War. These technological
innovations created what, in effect, was a social revolution.
Improvements in communications served to knit more closely citizens of diverse ethnic and political
backgrounds. Rapid printing presses, typesetting devices, and page-plate processes made printed matter more
widely accessible. The telephone simplified person-to-person communication. The phonograph, the silent
motion picture, the radio, and the sound picture for the first time made auditory and visual impact
simultaneously possible over the whole country and had the inevitable, and perhaps undesirable, effect of
establishing a trend to national conformity in thought and feeling. One could call this revolution the
nationalization of thought and taste.
Improvements in transportation made all parts of the country less remote from each other when
measured by the time required to go from one place to another. Bicycles and trolleys put the nation on
wheels. Then the automobile provided the means for speed and mobility, now so dear to Americans, and
brought a demand for better highways. By the 1920’s cargo trucks were beginning to cut into railroad
revenues, and the latest wonder, the airplane, was a fairly common sight.
The transport revolution was made possible by the development and perfection of new engines and
motors. The internal-combustion engine, using gasoline or oil, could be built in compact power units
admirably suited to automobiles, aircraft, and boats. The use of electricity, generated by waterpower or coal-
burning plants, simplified the problems of mechanical power for industrial use and made electrical
illumination common place in cities, indoors and out. Electricity also powered an increasing variety of
domestic appliance.
Electricity also powered an increasing variety of domestic appliance.

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 KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN, KEBUDAYAAN, RISET DAN TEKNOLOGI
UNIVERSITAS SRIWIJAYA
UPT BAHASA
Jalan Srijaya Negara Bukit Besar Palembang Telp./Fax. (0711) 354981
Jalan Raya Palembang-Prabumulih KM. 32 Inderalaya Telp. (0711) 580064
e-mail: uptbahasa@unsri.ac.id – suliet.unsri.ac.id

TASK 3
Directions:
1. Work in a pair doing a conversation. Before you start, mention your name and your student
number (if applicable). Speak loudly, clearly and accurately.
2. Choose one of the passages you are interested in below. Read carefully before you talk. The length
of the video is as long as a 15-turn-taking of each student.
3. Be seated in a conducive place. Avoid the unwanted noises during the recording.
4. After being recorded, upload your video in your Youtube account. Embed the link and share to
your instructors. (Remember: Set your Youtube privacy into public)
5. The task is submitted in the allotted time. You are supposed to have no score if you are late handing
in your task.
6. Good luck.

Passage 6
Astronomers have long used direct photography to gather large amounts of information from
telescopes. To do this, they have special light-sensitive coatings on glass plates, whose size depends on the type of
telescope employed. Certain wide-field telescopes commonly required very large glass plates. These plates do not bend,
can be measured accurately, and can preserve information over a long period of time, providing a record that an
astronomer at a later time can examine. However, even though long time exposures increase the amount of light
striking the plates that very faint objects in the sky eventually show up clearly, even the most sensitive plates convert
only a small percent of the photons striking them into an image. For this reason, photography cannot make very
efficient use of short time exposures on a telescope. Despite this inefficiency, photography is still very useful because it
works as a two-dimensional detector covering a large area at a telescope’s focus. Hence, the information contained in a
single photograph can be enormous, especially when the photographist a ken with wide-field telescopes.

Today, the technology of newer radio and x-ray telescopes has allowed astronomers to view images
otherwise invisible to the eye, and direct photography is now used less often to gather images. Today’s
astronomers can study an enhanced view of a telescope’s focus on a television monitor; and in most cases,
the data can later be converted by computer into digital form. This procedure, called image processing, plays
a central role in astronomy today.
Using false colors, the computer can display images of information otherwise undetectable to the
unaided eye. These colors are false in the sense that they are not the actual colors of the object in the visual
range of the spectrum. Rather, they are codes to a specific property, such as the x-ray emissions from stars.
Passage 7
The artistic movement known as Impressionism was first identified in 1874 when a group of artists,
dissatisfied with the reception of their works by the academic art establishment of their period, chose to hold
a separate exhibition of their paintings.
Despite obvious differences in style, all of these painters were connected by an ability to catch a
moment and preserve it on canvas, and in their belief in the importance of that moment. They readily
accepted and made use of the technological advances available to them, and in the end became recognized as
proponents of one of the most significant movements in the history of art, a movement that produced an
aesthetic revolution in art.
Several technological breakthroughs were responsible, to some degree, for the creation and execution
of the new Impressionist style. One of these was the invention of a new brush that gave artists greater

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 KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN, KEBUDAYAAN, RISET DAN TEKNOLOGI
UNIVERSITAS SRIWIJAYA
UPT BAHASA
Jalan Srijaya Negara Bukit Besar Palembang Telp./Fax. (0711) 354981
Jalan Raya Palembang-Prabumulih KM. 32 Inderalaya Telp. (0711) 580064
e-mail: uptbahasa@unsri.ac.id – suliet.unsri.ac.id

control. Another useful invention was the collapsible tin tube. This easily reclosed container preserved the
oil paint in a stable condition without altering the color. It was a great improvement over animal bladders,
which had been used for centuries to hold oil paint. The new tube was portable and made it possible for
artists to work outside. This freedom made it possible for Impressionist paintings to“ capture themoment,”
giving them a feeling of immediacy.
Another innovation was color. Nineteenth-century chemists had created a new palette of colors,
derived from colatar and other substances. These were first used by textile manufacturers and then adopted
by artists. They included some of the brighter colors–new shades of blue, green, and yellow, whose tones
gave the Impressionist paintings their characteristic shimmering quality.

Passage 8
As in so many of the world’s mines, the mining operations on the Comstock Lode were severely
hampered by water flooding into the workings. At Comstock, though, the problems were particularly acute,
since the water was extremely hot, reaching 64 degrees Celsius in some places. Geologically, the presence of
such large volumes of hot water was immensely significant, since it implied that beneath the Comstock Lode
there was still a large mass of hot igneous rock that might be producing more mineralization. For a long
while this near-scalding water made it impossible to mine much below the 1,000-meter level, and many
miners were killed by it, either directly by falling into the water or indirectly through the effects of over
exertion in the very high temperatures of the mine galleries.
No fewer than 53 miners died in one period of 22 months ending in May 1877. To combat this it was
decided to dig a six-kilometer-long tunnel to drain and ventilate the upper parts of the mine workings. This
tunnel, which became known as the Sutro Tunnel, took many years of extremely hard work to complete, and
the succession of physical obstacles and financial crises that were successfully overcome in its construction
have become legendary, comparable in some ways with the heroic engineering involved in the laying of the
first transcontinental railway across the United States.

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 KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN, KEBUDAYAAN, RISET DAN TEKNOLOGI
UNIVERSITAS SRIWIJAYA
UPT BAHASA
Jalan Srijaya Negara Bukit Besar Palembang Telp./Fax. (0711) 354981
Jalan Raya Palembang-Prabumulih KM. 32 Inderalaya Telp. (0711) 580064
e-mail: uptbahasa@unsri.ac.id – suliet.unsri.ac.id

SCORING RUBRIC FOR GENERAL CONVERSATION AND FREE SPEAKING

Elements Very Good (20 Good (15 points) Average (10 points) Poor (5 points) Score
points)

Pronunciation - The student - The student - The student - The student

presents a clear presents a clear presents a presents unclear
pronunciation pronunciation pronunciation pronunciation.
that helps that helps that sometimes - He/she makes
comprehension. comprehension. interferes with too many
- Very few - Some comprehension. pronunciation
pronunciation pronunciation - Regular mistakes that
mistakes are mistakes are pronunciation interfere with
made (1-3 made (4-6 mistakes are comprehension
mistakes). mistakes). made (7-10 (12 or more
mistakes). mistakes).
Delivery and The student delivers The student delivers The student delivers The student delivers
Attitude the whole message in the whole message in the whole message the message with no
a confident way. a confident way. in an uncertain way. confidence. He/she
He/she uses facial He/she sometimes He/she uses facial does not use either
expressions and uses facial expressions and facial expressions or
gestures to enrich the expressions and gestures very few gestures to enrich the
message most of the gestures to enrich the times to enrich the message.
time. message most of the message.
time.

Content All the ideas the Most of the ideas the Some ideas the The ideas regarding
student presents, student presents are student presents are the opinion of the
regarding his/her supported by supported by student are supported
opinion, are additional additional by additional
supported by information or information or information or
additional explanations. explanations. explanations.
information or
explanations.

Fluency The student presents The student presents The student hesitates The student is
no hesitation and some hesitation and frequently and extremely hesitant.
he/she does not need he/she rarely has to he/she often has to He/she has to search
to search for words. search for words (1 search for words (3 for words most of the
or 2 times). or 4 times). time (more than 5
times).

Grammar The student presents The student presents The student The student makes a
very few some grammatical regularly presents lot of grammatical
grammatical mistakes (4-6 grammatical mistakes (10 or more
mistakes (1-3 mistakes). mistakes (7-9 mistakes).
mistakes). mistakes).

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