SUMMARY WRITING

Write paraphrases of the sentences.

1. For a minor per capita cost, political parties could be publicly-funded, thus avoiding charges that
government policy can be influenced by large private donations.

2. In attempting to attract the peak-time audience, the BBC depends too heavily on costume drama.

3. Arts funding in the UK, whether by the state or by private philanthropists, is undoubtedly London-
centric, with the result that the requirements of the regions are rarely met.

4. A system whereby parents put themselves in serious debt so as to purchase a house near a highly-
ranked primary school is clearly absurd.

5. The British painter Keith Vaughan has been overlooked by critics as a result of his depiction of the
human form, during a period when his peers favoured the abstract in their art.

6. The failure of a business start-up is more often due to a lack of good guidance than a shortfall in its
financing.

7. The authorship of Shakespeare's plays

Doubts continue to surround Shakespeare's authorship of the plays currently attributed to him. No
strong evidence, however, has been produced to defend any other candidate, and the concerns
expressed appear to be based on nothing more substantial than a belief that the writer's humble origins
seem incompatible with his poetic brilliance. Furthermore, all the extant documentary evidence, in
terms of official records and the testimony of contemporaries, points to Shakespeare as author as
firmly as any other accepted attributions of the period are made.

8. Salmon farming is not a particularly successful means of increasing the amount of fresh fish available
to the modern consumer. To begin with, one must be aware that the salmon is a carnivorous fish with
a heavy nutritional requirement. This means in reality that a farmed salmon does not produce as much
fish as it eats. Vegetable proteins may prove to be an alternative, but as currently used, they reduce
the amount of valuable omega-3 fatty acids in the product. Secondly, the use of open net cages in the
farming process allows disease and sea lice to spread from farmed salmon to local or transient stocks
of wild salmon.

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Read the following paragraphs and identify and summarise, as briefly as possible, the arguments
which are being presented.
1. I was not surprised when the government's announcement regarding the new "hospital entry fee"
prompted such widespread protest. People rightly feel that they are entitled to healthcare which is
completely free and covered by their (already hefty) tax contributions. In effect, if they have to pay a
fee (however nominal) simply to be admitted to a hospital, they will be paying twice.

2. No-one can deny that herbal treatments (and all sorts of other so-called "alternative" remedies) can
help people who suffer from psychosomatic ailments. However, so can any placebo drug prescribed
by a regular GP. With no solid corpus, and very few (and dubious) educational institutions recognising
it as a science (let alone teaching it), alternative medicine should not be considered as an option by
any logical individual.

3. The local school board has recently announced that as of September, physical education classes will
no longer be compulsory for students attending secondary schools. In making their decision they are
ignoring the fact that the exercise which is provided in these classes is often the only form of physical
activity that these children participate in. They have also quite obviously forgotten that taking part in
team sports promotes team spirit, increases self-confidence and allows a student to feel proud of him-
or herself.

4. The Department of Lands and Forests published their annual report this week for this year's hunting
season. There is sure to be an outcry from preservation groups at the fact that this year’s quota has
been raised to two animals per hunter. However, their decision was based on purely humane logic.
Due to a dramatic increase in the deer population in past years, rangers have been unable to provide
food for the animals and they have been starving to death in the cold winter months.

5. Local citizens turned out in solidarity last night at a hastily called town meeting. Citizens are outraged
that proposed plans for a new hydro dam in the area have been approved. Because the area's
livelihood is based on the fishing industry, locals are rightly concerned that their bread and butter will
be lost. Another concern raised was that the 100-acre park beside the river would also be destroyed
as a result of the construction of the dam.

6. High street merchants were out in full force this morning blocking the shopping district and temporarily
halting traffic in the downtown area. Since the new shopping arcade opened on the city's outskirts,
many of the irate merchants have had to close their doors. They should be offered reduced rental rates
in the shopping complex and they should be reimbursed for all monies spent on moving to new
premises.

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Summarise the following passages in about 80 words. Try to use your own words as much as
possible.
PASSAGE 1:
Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary should be
between 90 and 100 words long.
We find that bright children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contrary, both
their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel that there are many disadvantages in streaming
pupils. It does not take into account the fact that children develop at different rates. It can have a bad effect
on both the bright and the not-so-bright child. After all, it can be quite discouraging to be at the bottom of
the top grade!
Besides, it is rather unreal to grade people just according to their intellectual ability. This is only
one aspect of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to the full,
not just their academic ability. We also value personal qualities and social skills, and we find that mixed-
ability teaching contributes to all these aspects of learning.
In our classrooms, we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them the
opportunity to learn to co-operate, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They also learn how to cope
with personal problems as well as learning how to think, to make decisions, to analyse and evaluate, and
to communicate effectively. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the teachers.
Sometimes the pupils work in pairs; sometimes they work on individual tasks and assignments,
and they can do this at their own speed. They also have some formal class teaching when this is
appropriate. We encourage our pupils to use the library, and we teach them the skills they need in order
to do this effectively. An advanced pupil can do advanced work; it does not matter what age the child is.
We expect our pupils to do their best, not their least, and we give them every encouragement to attain this
goal.

PASSAGE 2:
Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary should be
between 80 and 100 words long.
GENE THERAPY
“We used to think that our fate was in our stars, but now we know that, in large measure, our fate
is in our genes”, said James Watson. Watson is a molecular biologist and co-discoverer of DNA structure.
Why? Scientists are seeing that gene therapy is revolutionizing the treatment of disease.
In gene therapy, healthy genes are introduced into defective cells to prevent or cure disease. While
much of the research is in the beginning stages, some successes point to the real benefit of the therapy.
In Italy, doctors have recently treated one genetic disease with gene therapy. This disease most often
begins to destroy the brain when children are between 1 and 2, stopping them from walking and talking.
By inserting normal, healthy genetic material into a virus and then infecting the patients, scientists seem
to be able to cure the disease. Although the children given the therapy still need follow-up treatments, they
now lead a relatively normal life.
Gene therapy has also been used to help older patients. These people suffer from a disease that
causes slow movement and uncontrollable shaking because part of the brain dies. Those treated with
gene therapy showed a 23.1 percent improvement when tested six months later. Gene therapy appears
to be a more positive alternative to surgery or medicine and is an exciting new approach that is just making
the news. Researchers hope that in the coming years, every genetic disease will have gene therapy as its
treatment. But more research is needed to assure its safety.

PASSAGE 3:
Read the following extract and use your own words to summarise it. Your summary should be
between 100 and 120 words.
The act of speech is so commonplace as to be unremarkable, yet it carries with it a number of
important implications. It implied, first of all, the existence of a permanent language ability. We do not talk
all the time and some permanent attribute must be carried over from occasion to occasion. It implies, also,
the existence of a social framework within which this ability can be used and encouraged. Speech is
involved in developing and sustaining personal relationships, especially family ties. It is also functional, in
another important sense, as it can alter behaviour. It is a tool for getting things done, for teaching and
learning. In practice, we find that these functions do not fall into such neat divisions but that they overlap
and influence each other.

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 But speech has another implication too. It implies that what produces the sound is human. No other
species has evolved this means of communication and we can therefore compare man with his nearest
animal relatives to find out wherein lies the difference. In addition, we can look to see how this ability
evolved and in what circumstances. These circumstances are of particular interest, since they played an
important part in influencing the precise nature of the structures and abilities we have inherited. Much of
this interest has centred on the brain, and much of our concern will be with it too.
The very fact that speech and language are so familiar may be a hindrance in studying them. Far
from being easily understood, language requires a vast amount of experience in order to grasp the full
implication of its nature and functions. We can approach it through a large number of disciplines, ranging
from philosophy, psychology, sociology, and linguistics through to anthropology and neurology. All these
disciplines may claim to provide unique and valuable insights into the nature of language; none may claim
to provide a complete analysis of it.

PASSAGE 4:
Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary should be
between 100 and 120 words.
The terms “productive vocabulary” and “receptive vocabulary” perhaps need explanation. The
distinction between them is certainly essential for teaching purposes. Native speakers and foreign
language learners alike recognize and understand more words than they actually use. The words they
recognize but do not use are the items by which their receptive vocabularies exceed their productive ones.
The native speaker normally hears and sees a word many times in many slightly differing contexts and
collocations before he begins to use it. It is recorded in his mind before it comes to the tip of his tongue or
pen. In early life when the language is first being learnt, the incubation period is very lengthy. The eminent
British foreign language teaching methodologist H. E. Palmer tells the story of a boy brought up by bilingual
parents in Alsace who spoke French in the home; six months before the child began to speak, they moved
into Germany and switched the home language to German. The baby’s first words six months afterwards
were none the less French.
As greater mastery of the language is achieved, words pass more rapidly and easily from receptive
knowledge to productive use when the need arises, and in teaching English to native English-speakers no
sharp distinction between receptive and productive use is normally made. The foreign language learner,
however, wishes to reach general fluency as rapidly as possible and if he can do so within a limited
vocabulary which is nevertheless satisfactory for all general purposes, time will be saved. Moreover, if the
active vocabulary is also a good foundation for reading unsimplified English, he will be able to go on
learning new words for himself, and the natural process of movement at need from receptive to productive
use can be allowed to take place unforced and, as far as the student is concerned, almost unperceived.

PASSAGE 5:
Read the following article on telemedicine. Write ONE paragraph of 180-200 words to summarise
the main points.
TELEMEDICINE CAN LOWER COSTS AND IMPROVE ACCESS
Communications technology is increasingly being used for telemedicine applications to improve
access to medical care in rural areas. The most cost-effective applications are those that are paid for by
insurers; other applications enhance access to care but are not cost-effective because insurers do not pay
for related costs for professional fees or the implementation of the technology.
Telemedicine, one of the communications technologies that will figure significantly in healthcare
delivery in the future, should also figure prominently in the strategic plans of healthcare organisations.
Telemedicine uses electronic information and communications technology to provide medical diagnosis
and/or patient healthcare when distance separates the participants. These technologies allow for tele-
imaging using image transmission and receiver units that operate over communication facilities. However,
even the use of a mobile phone by a specialist to talk to a patient and/or the patient's care provider
constitutes telemedicine.
Before implementing telemedicine technology, providers should assess its return-on-investment
potential. Telemedicine participants may disagree about the efficacy and efficiency of a telemedicine
application. For example, while physicians or the hospital may find an application cost-effective, rural end-
users may not. Some applications improve access to care but are not cost-effective. It has been shown in

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some instances, however, that using telemedicine technology for radiology, prisoner health, and home
health care is cost-effective and enhances access for patients and physicians alike.
Areas in which access to radiologists is limited will benefit from the use of teleradiology technology
because providers in these areas can receive diagnostic radiology results more quickly and at lower cost
by teleradiology than from courier services or awaiting a visit from a radiologist. The quality of transmitted
images is clinically equivalent to the quality of hard-copy images. Small hospitals are using teleradiology
to provide 24-hour-a-day service at less cost than hiring a radiologist. Of course, teleradiology will never
totally replace on-site radiologists, who are needed to perform procedures such as barium studies. Many
routine procedures, however, do not require immediate interpretation and can be provided cost-effectively
through teleradiology. Teleradiology technology is most cost-effective for rural providers that have high-
bandwidth communications, because they are able to access specialists in a distant urban area.
Normally, prison populations can only receive the most basic healthcare services in prison, so
inmates must be transported to provider facilities for care. Telecommunications can be used to provide
access to medical care for this population while avoiding the costs of transportation and additional security
measures. Providers are able to provide care in a secure environment, minimizing security risks by
avoiding contact with potentially dangerous inmates. Additionally, money saved can be reallocated to the
medical needs of the inmates and ultimately could reduce the cost of providing medical care to inmates.
In the future, home health care is expected to exploit the advantages of telemedicine most fully. With
the development of WebTV services and the evolution of desktop video-conferencing, doctors and other
health professionals will be able to deliver effective, non-invasive care over standard telephone lines and
cable television infrastructures. Within the next few years, access to individual homes via the Internet,
interactive video, cable television and low-cost monitoring technologies is expected to enable physicians
to monitor chronic health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, particularly for older
patients. Telemedicine technology can reduce hospital lengths of stay because follow-up convalescent
care can be provided in the home.
Telemedicine can be used for other applications as well, although many of these applications are
not covered by health insurance. For instance, telemedicine technologies can be used for consultations
and evaluations for applications such as bone-marrow transplants. A doctor can review a patient's medical
records and explain the procedure, risks and expected outcomes without requiring the patient to travel to
the urban centre. Conducting a telemedicine consultation allows the physician to see the patient and
establish a relationship before the patient has to make a decision regarding treatment. Although insurers
do not pay for such consultations, the revenue that is generated from performing the procedure, should
the patient choose to have it, will cover the cost of the use of the technology.