SUMMARY PRACTICE 5

NAME:………………………………. DATE:………………………………..
CLASS:…………………………… MARK:…………

 Passage 1: Read the following passage and summary the main points in no more than 160
words.
For centuries silk was a fabric available only to royal families or the very rich. It was regarded as
worth its weight in gold. Indeed it is a special material. Delicate and glossy, it absorbs colours
better than any other fabric. Yards and yards of pure silk can easily go through a lady's ring.
Opened up, it can be wrapped round a person to provide warmth from the cold or a cool touch
when it is warm.
No wonder silk-weaving was a closely-guarded secret for centuries. Silk, and the silkworm from
whose cocoon it is spun, used to be fiercely-kept secrets in China. The story of silk therefore is
made up of yarns spun on legend and myth. A popular tale of how it was first discovered is the one
about a Chinese empress, Shi Ling Chi.
One day, the empress was strolling in her palace grounds among the mulberry bushes. She noticed
little worms spinning shining amber cocoons in the bushes. Picking up one of the cocoons, she
unwound the thread and found that it was one long strand of shiny material. Fascinated by her
discovery, she pulled strands from other cocoons through her ring to form a thicker thread.
Eventually, with the help of her ladies-in-waiting, she spun the threads into a beautiful piece of
cloth. This cloth was made into a magnificent robe for the emperor, Huang Ti. Silk became known
as the 'cloth of kings'.
For thousands of years only the royal family of China had silk. The Chinese kept the secret of
making silk for 2,500 years. Although the material was sold to the West, the source of the precious
thread was not revealed. The punishment for disclosing that silk came from the cocoons of the
silkworms was death.
Legends abound relating to how other countries tried to obtain the secret of silk. According to one,
the Japanese carried off four Chinese maidens with mulberry shoots and silk moth eggs hidden in
their sleeves. Another story is about a Chinese princess who married an Indian prince. She
smuggled silkworm eggs and mulberry shoots in her elaborate headdress. Whatever truths there are
in these tales, Japan and India are the other leading producers of silk today.
Even today the palace in Japan rears its own silkworms. The silk produced is used for repairing
treasures in the palace and making gifts for foreign dignitaries. Members of the Japanese
household often participate in silk weaving and dyeing.
How silk spread to Europe is told in the story of the two monks who were sent to China by
Emperor Justinian of Constantinople. Their mission was to acquire some silk moth eggs and
mulberry shoots. They returned years later with the desired items hidden inside their hollowed-out
walking sticks. Constantinople was then the Byzantine capital, and the crossroads between East
and West. The secret soon spread throughout Europe.
Today silk can be worn by everyone. It comes in several forms: satin, chiffon, crepe, taffeta, raw
silk and so on. Fine silk is very expensive. What the silkworm took three days to spin is unraveled
in five minutes to produce three meters of silk. It takes 150 silkworms to make a man's necktie. It
has been estimated that it took three trillion silkworms to make Princess Diana's taffeta wedding

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gown!
Silk is also useful in a wide variety of applications from medicine to space technology and the
cultivation of silkworms is possible anywhere mulberry trees are grown.
In Indonesia, silk is being spun from the cocoons of a certain wild moth found in a village outside
Jogjakarta. The cocoons, found on tops of trees ten meters from the ground, provide a very fine
silky thread. Villagers are earning US$100 a year gathering these cocoons. This wild moth silk
industry has attracted the interest of Japanese and Western companies. At the moment, only 50
kilograms of silk is being produced a month.
There have been plans to double the production soon. It is a new industry that could help revive the
Indonesian economy.
The globalization of the silk industry continues.
Your summary:
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 Passage 2: Read the following passage and summary the main points in no more than 130
words.
During recent years, graduates have been finding it difficult to seek jobs that match their tertiary
qualifications. This has been especially so since 1998. As the recent survey by the Manpower
Department indicated, a distressing number of 44,000 local graduates are reported to be
unemployed.
This state of high unemployment is mainly due to the changing nature and demands of global
trade, resource flows and competition. The demands of global trade would mean that graduates
who want to take up jobs in the current job market have to be equipped with specialized skills and
knowledge. However, most of them are found to be lacking in essential skills such as
communication and problem-solving skills as well as leadership qualities.
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There is no doubt that having a degree broadens the employment opportunities available and
enhances an individual's chances of securing employment. However, graduates looking for a job
must note that a degree is not a guarantee to a good job. In selecting employees, employers will
look at what else graduates have to offer, including their confidence, skills, certifications, work
experience and overall potential. Quite simply, a degree is not enough on its own and graduates
must realize this. Since 1998, many graduates take an average of a year to get a job after
graduation. Reports by the Human Resource Ministry have shown that more than 6,000 registered
graduates were competing for about 1,000 jobs available at any time.
It is generally felt that local colleges and universities should improve the quality of knowledge
imparted to their students, especially in emerging sciences. In 2005, the Ministry of Education
announced that three of the country's oldest universities, UM, UKM and USM, have been made
research-intensive universities with emphasis on postgraduate studies. These universities would be
awarded bigger research grants to encourage postgraduate studies and research.
Local institutions of higher learning have increased with the advent of industrialization and
economic development. Today, there are more universities and university colleges nationwide.
Currently, there are more than 500 such private colleges. It is estimated that about 150,000
students are attending public universities and 200,000 are studying in private colleges.
Another measure taken in 2005 was to retrain unemployed graduates. The retraining was carried
out by Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad. Since July, more than 30,000 unemployed
graduates had attended PSMB retraining courses in areas such as English, information and
communications technology, tourism, event management and financial planning. The Government
has allocated RM35 million to retrain some 6,000 unemployed graduates at its 200 training centers
nationwide.
With the availability of greater opportunities of higher education and retraining schemes by the
Government, graduates should be better prepared to take up more demanding positions in the job
market.

Your summary:
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 Passage 3: Read the following passage and summary the main points in no more than 130
words.
Cloning is the process of making an identical copy of something. It refers to processes used to
create copies of DNA fragments, be it molecular cloning or cell cloning or organisms. The term
also covers when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually.
The possibility of human cloning was raised when scientists at Roslin Institute created the much-
celebrated sheep called Dolly. It aroused worldwide interest and concern because of its scientific
and ethical implications. The immediate reaction was that humans would now be able to make
brand-new copies of themselves. This breakthrough in 1997 also generated uncertainty over the
meaning of cloning'. There are three types of cloning. They are DNA cloning, reproductive cloning
and therapeutic cloning.
Recombinant DNA technology or DNA cloning involves the transfer of a DNA fragment from one
organism to a self-replicating genetic element. Scientists studying a particular gene often use
bacterial plasmids to generate multiple copies of the same gene. Plasmids are self-replicating extra-
chromosomal circular DNA molecules. When the fragment of the chromosomal DNA is joined
with its cloning vector in the lab, it is called a recombinant DNA molecule.
Reproductive cloning is a technology used to generate an animal that has the same nuclear DNA as
another currently or previously existing animal. Dolly was created by this type of cloning
technology. In the process, scientists transfer genetic material from the nucleus of a donor adult
cell to an egg whose genetic material has been removed. The reconstructed egg containing the
DNA from a donor cell must be treated with chemicals or 'electric current to stimulate cell
division. Once the cloned embryo reaches a suitable stage, it is transferred to the uterus of a female
host where it continues to develop until birth.
Therapeutic cloning is also called `embryo cloning'. It is the production of human embryos for use
in research. The goal of this process is not to create cloned human beings but rather to harvest stem
cells that can be used to treat disease. Stem cells are important to biomedical researchers because
they can be used to generate virtually any type of specialized cell in the human body.
Stem cells are extracted from the egg after it has divided for five days. The extraction process
destroys the embryo, which raises a variety of ethical concerns. It is hoped that one day, stem cells
can be used to serve as replacement cells to treat heart disease, Alzheimer's, cancer and other
diseases.
Recombinant DNA technology is useful for learning about other related technologies such as gene
therapy and genetic engineering of organisms. Gene therapy can be used to treat certain genetic
conditions by introducing virus vectors that transfer corrected copies of faulty genes into the cells
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of a host organism. Similarly, genes from different organisms can be used to improve taste and
nutritional value or provide resistance to particular types of disease or genetically engineer food
crops.

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