HW 5

SUMMARY
Is Constant Use of Electronic Media Changing Our Minds?
The power of modern electronic media, such as the internet, mobile phones, and video games, has led
to concerns about the impact on the human brain. According to American science writer Nicholas Carr,
the mature human brain is subject to neuroplasticity, and constant exposure to modern media
strengthens new neural pathways while weakening older ones. Carr cites research by Gary Small, a
professor of psychiatry at UCLA, which concluded that just five hours of internet use is enough to
awaken previously dormant parts of the brain's pre-frontal cortex. The internet can rewire the mind,
leading to shallower thinking and skimming. Researchers at Duke University found a correlation
between declining test scores in mathematics and reading and the spread of home computers and
broadband. They concluded that the educational value of home computing was best realized when
youngsters were actively supervised by parents. Multitasking is also a concern, as paying attention is
the prerequisite for memory and the brain needs rest and recovery time to consolidate thoughts.
Reliable studies suggest that children spend between two and four hours in front of screens, including
television screens, and not six or seven, as often suggested. There is evidence that youngsters who use
social networking sites have more rewarding offline social lives than those who do not. Professor
David Buckingham of the University of London’s Institute of Education concluded that the evidence
about the effects of new media is weak and inconclusive, with both positive and negative effects. ( 10
sentences 244 words)

CAM 14 TEST 2 READING ( DETAILED EXPLAINATION)

Passage 1 : Alexander Henderson ( 1831 – 1913)

1. FALSE 2. TRUE
3. NOT GIVEN 4. FALSE
5. NOT GIVEN 6. TRUE
7. FALSE 8. TRUE
9. merchant 10. equipment
11. gifts 12. canoe
13. mountains

Questions Position in the passage Explanation

1) Besides its residence in Press estate = in the area
Edinburgh, it owned Press Estate, when he was younger = his childhood
650 acres of farmland about 35 visited = spent
miles southeast of the city. The
family often stayed at Press
Castle, the large mansion on the
northern edge of the property, and
Alexander spent much of his
childhood in the area, playing on
the beach near Eyemouth or
fishing in the streams nearby.
2) In 1849 he began a three-year
apprenticeship to become an
accountant. Although he never
liked the prospect of a business
career, he stayed with it to please
his family.
pursued a business career
= … to become an
accountant because it was
what his family wanted =
to please his family

3) The two men made a photographic NG

excursion to Niagara Falls in 1860
and they cooperated on
experiments with magnesium
flares as a source of artificial light
in 1865.

4) In spite of their friendship, their F

styles of photography were quite
different

5) in 1866, he gave up his business NG

to open a photographic studio,
advertising himself as a portrait
and landscape photographer.

6) From about 1870 he dropped T

portraiture to specialize in
landscape photography and other
views.

7) That same year, while in the lower F

St Lawrence River region, he took
some photographs of the
construction of the Intercolonial
Railway. This undertaking led in
1875 to a commission from the
railway to record the principal
structures along the almost
completed line connecting
Montreal to Halifax

8) In 1892 Henderson accepted a T

full-time position with the CPR as
manager of a photographic
department which he was to set up
and administer. His duties
included spending four months in
the field each year.
 9) In 1892 Henderson accepted a Was born in Scotland in 1831
full-time position with the CPR as father was a = the son of a
manager of a photographic
department which he was to set up
and administer. His duties
included spending four months in
the field each year.

10) There was little competing took up considerable time = time-consuming

hobby or amateur photography heavy = the weight of
before the late 1880s because of
the time consuming techniques
involved and the weight of the
equipment.

11) People wanted to buy photographs the photographs Henderson sold = buy
as souvenirs of a trip or as gifts, photographs souvenirs travelling = souvenirs of a
and catering to this market, trip
Henderson had stock photographs
on display at his studio for
mounting, framing, or inclusion in
albums

12) He was especially fond of the Took many trips = often travelledAlong eastern
wilderness and often travelled by rivers = …and other noted eastern rivers
canoe on the Blanche, du Lievre,
and other noted eastern rivers.

13) In 1885 he went west along the photographed the = tool photographs of the
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR)
as far as Rogers Pass in British
Columbia, where he took
photographs of the mountains and
the progress of construction

Passage 2 : Back to the future of skyscraper design

14. F 15. C
16. E 17. D
18. B 19. designs
20. pathogens 21. tuberculosis
22. wards 23. communal
24. public 25. miasmas
26. cholera
Questions Position in the passage Explanation
14 Foul air, rather than germs, was
believed to be the main driver of
'hospital fever', leading to disease
and frequent death. The
prosperous steered clear of
hospitals. (F)

15 Short regards glass, steel and air- Is linked to = as symbols of

conditioned skyscrapers as Prestige =status
symbols of status, rather than
practical ways of meeting our
requirements. (C

16 We discovered that 19thcentury Comparison – similar to

hospital wards could generate up
to 24 air changes an hour-that's
similar to the performance of a
modern-day, computer-controlled
operating theatre. (E)

17 'We spent three years digitally

modelling Billings' final designs,'
says Short. 'We put pathogens· in
the airstreams, modelled for
someone with tuberculosis (TB)
coughing in the wards and we
found the ventilation systems in
the room would have kept other
patients safe from harm. (D)

18 Instead, he shows it is entirely Advertising = marketed

possible to accommodate natural The large increase in use = the widespread
ventilation and cooling in large introduction of
buildings by looking into the past,
before the widespread
introduction of air conditioning
systems, which were 'relentlessly
and aggressively marketed' by
their inventors (B)

19 Short's book highlights a Ensure they had good ventilation = of ingeniously

developing and sophisticated ventilated hospitals
art and science of ventilating
buildings through the 19th and
earlier-20th centuries,
 including the design of
ingeniously ventilated
hospitals. Of particular
interest were those built to the….
20 'We spent three years digitally
21 modelling Billings' final designs,'
says Short. 'We put pathogens· in
the airstreams, modelled for
someone with tuberculosis (TB)
coughing in the wards and we
found the ventilation systems in
the room would have kept other
patients safe from harm
22 We discovered that 19thcentury
hospital wards could generate up
to 24 air changes an hour-that's
similar to the performance of a
modern-day, computer-controlled
operating theatre
23 Communal wards appropriate for
certain patients - older people with
dementia, for example - would
work just as well in today's
hospitals, at a fraction of the
energy cost.'
24 + 25 Much of the ingenuity present in
19th-century hospital and building
design was driven by a panicked
public clamoring for buildings that
could protect against what was
thought to be the lethal threat of
miasmas - toxic air that spread
disease
26 Miasmas were feared as the
principal agents of disease and
epidemics for centuries, and were
used to explain the spread of
infection from the Middle Ages
right through to the cholera
outbreaks in London and Paris
during the 1850s. Foul air, rather
than germs, was believed to be the
main driver of 'hospital fever'
In the air – in the airstreams
Coming from = modelled for
Patients suffering from … = someone with
Would not have harmed other patients = would
have kept other .. safe from harm
He also found that = we discovered that
Could change = generate up to 24 air changes
as often as = that’s similar to
modern operating theatre = modern-day,
computer-controlled operating theatre
Areas = wards
Energy use could be reduced = at a fraction of the
energy cost
*at a fraction of the energy cost = at a very low
price
A major reason for improving ventilation in
19thcentury hospitals = Much of the ingenuity
present
in 19th-century hospital and building design
Demand = clamor
from the = was driven by a
For protection against = could protect against
Bad air = toxic air
Epidemics = outbreaks
In London and Paris
Spread of disease = spread of infection
In the middle of the 19th century = from the
Middle Ages
Passage 3: Why companies should welcome disorder
27. vi 28. i
29. iii 30. ii
31. ix 32. vii
33. iv 34. viii
35. productive 36. perfectionists
37. dissatisfied 38. TRUE
39. FALSE 40. NOT GIVEN

Questions Position in the passage Explanation

27 We have more strategies for time Are increasingly expected to do = are told that we
management, project management ought to
and self organization than at any What = organize our company, our home life, our
other time in human history. We week, our day and even our sleep
are told that we ought to organize
our company, our home life, our
week, our day and even our sleep,
all as a means to becoming more
productive

28 Ironically, however, the Complaints = claim to be dissatisfied withThe

…. dissatisfied with the way their impact of a certain approach = the way their work
work is structured and the way is structured and the way they are managed
they are managed

29 Writing in the first half of the 20th

century, he designed a number
of principles to improve the
efficiency of the work process,
which have since become
widespread in modern companies

30 New research suggests Fundamental beliefs = basic assumptions (that

that this obsession with order is a necessary condition for productivity)Are
efficiency is misguided. The in fact incorrect = is misguided
problem is not necessarily the
management theories or
strategies we use to organise
our work; it's the basic
assumptions we hold in
approaching how we work.
Here it's the assumption
that order is a necessary
condition for productivity. This
assumption has also fostered the
 idea that disorder must be
detrimental to organisational
productivity.

31 What's more, recent studies show Evidence = recent studies

that order actually has diminishing A certain approach = order
returns More disadvantages than advantages = has
diminishing returns
32 These environments can lead to Are currently impossible = would never be
new solutions that, under reached
conventionally structured
environments (filled with
bottlenecks in terms of
information flow, power
structures, rules, and routines)
would never be reached

33 For example, Oticon, a large

Danish manufacturer of hearing
aids, used what it called a
'spaghetti' structure in order to
reduce the organisation's rigid
hierarchies.In similar fashion, the
former chairman of General
Electric embraced
disorganisation, putting forward
the idea of the 'boundary less'
organisation

34 A word of warning to others

thinking of jumping on this
bandwagon: the evidence so far
suggests disorder, much like
order, also seems to have
diminishing utility, and can also
have detrimental effects on
performance if overused

35 We are told that we ought to Numerous training sessions = countless seminars

organize our company, our home and workshops management, project and self
life, our week, our day and even organization
our sleep, all as a means to
becoming more productive. Feel they are not .. enough = to becoming more
Every week, countless seminars
and workshops take place around
the world to tell a paying public
that they ought to structure their
 lives in order to achieve this

36 This rhetoric has also crept into Who regard themselves as = self proclaimed
the thinking of business leaders Appeals to = much to the delight of
and entrepreneurs, much to the Being organized = to get everything right
delight of self proclaimed
perfectionists with the need to get
everything right.

37 A large proportion of workers Many ppl = a large proportion of workers

from all demographics claim to be Feel – claim to be
dissatisfied with the way their With aspects of their work = with the way their
work is structured and the way work is structured and the way they are managed
they are managed

38 The result is that businesses and
people spend time and money
organizing themselves for the sake
of organizing, rather than actually
looking at the end goal and
usefulness of such an effort
Aim at order = spend time and money organizing
themselves for the sake of organizing
Without really consider = rather than actually
looking at its value = the end goal and usefulness
of such an effort

39 In fact, research shows that, when Is most successful = the best approach
innovating, the best approach is to Have distinct >< engage as one organic group
create an environment devoid of
structure and hierarchy and enable
everyone involved to engage as
one organic group

40 In similar fashion, the former NG

chairman of General Electric
embraced disorganization, putting
forward the idea of the 'boundary
less' organization. Google and a
number of other tech companies
have…. glue people together