Unit 4 Reference

Among the vast number of men who have thought fit to write down the history of their own lives, three
or four have achieved masterpieces which stand out preeminently: Saint Augustine in his Confessions,
Samuel Pepys in his Diary, Rousseau in his Confessions. It is among these extraordinary documents, and
unsurpassed by any of them, that the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini takes its place.

The life of himself which Cellini wrote was due to other motives than those which produced its chief
competitors for first place in its class. St. Augustines aim was religious and didactic, Pepys noted down in
his diary the daily events of his life for his sole satisfaction and with no intention that any one should
read the cipher in which they were recorded. But Cellini wrote that the world might know, after he was
dead, what a fellow he had been; what great things he had attempted, and against what odds he had
carried them through. All men, he held, whatever be their condition, who have done anything of merit,
or which verily has a semblance of merit, if so be they are men of truth and good repute, should write
the tale of their life with their own hand. That he had done many things of merit, he had no manner of
doubt. His repute was great in his day, and perhaps good in the sense in which he meant goodness; as to
whether he was a man of truth, there is still dispute among scholars.

Of some misrepresentations, some suppressions of damaging facts, there seems to be evidence only too
good-a man with Cellini's passion for proving himself in the right could hardly have avoided being guilty
of such; but of the general trustworthiness of his record, of the kind of man he was and the kind of life
he led, there is no reasonable doubt.

The period covered by the autobiography is from Cellini's birth in 1500 to 1562; the scene is mainly in
Italy and France. Of the great events of the time, the time of the Reformation and the Counter-
Reformation, of the strife of Pope and Emperor and King, we get only glimpses. The leaders in these
events appear in the foreground of the picture only when they come into personal relations with the
hero; and then not mainly as statesmen or warriors, but as connoisseurs and patrons of art. Such an
event as the Sack of Rome is described because Benvenuto himself fought in it.

Much more complete is the view he gives of the artistic life of the time. It was the age of Michelangelo,
and in the throng of great artists which then filled the Italian cities, Cellini was no inconsiderable figure.
Michelangelo himself he knew and adored. Nowhere can we gain a better idea than in this book of the
passionate enthusiasm for the creation of beauty which has bestowed upon the Italy of the Renaissance
its greatest glory.

Very vivid, too, is the impression we receive of the social life of the sixteenth century; of its violence and
licentiousness, of its zeal for fine craftsmanship, of its abounding vitality, its versatility and its idealism.
For Cellini himself is an epitome of that century. This man who tells here the story of his life was a
murderer and a braggart, insolent, sensual, inordinately proud and passionate; but he was also a worker
in gold and silver, rejoicing in delicate chasing and subtle modelling of precious surfaces; a sculptor and
a musician; and, as all who read his book must testify, a great master of narrative. Keen as was
Benvenutos interest in himself, and much as he loved to dwell on the splendor of his exploits and
achievements, he had little idea that centuries after his death he would live again, less by his statue of
Perseus and his goldsmiths work than by the book which he dictated casually to a lad of fourteen, while
he went about his work.
The autobiography was composed between 1558 and 1566, but it brings the record down only to 1562.
The remainder of Cellinis life seems to have been somewhat more peaceful. He died at Florence, May
13, 1571, and was buried in The Church of the Annunziata in that city.

1. The word it in “It is among these extraordinary documents” refers to …

A. The autobiography
B. Confession
C. Man
D. Document
E. Augustine

2. The word he in “Cellini wrote that the world might know, after he was dead, what a fellow he had
been” refers to …

A. Augustine
B. The competitor
C. Cellini
D. Chief
E. Pepys

3. The word they in “The leaders in these events appear in the foreground of the picture only when they
come into personal relations with the hero” refers to …

A. Pope and Emperor

4. The word he in “Much more complete is the view he gives of the artistic life of the time.” Refers to …

A. Benvenuto
B. Michealangelo
C. Cecillini
D. The artist
E. The Hero

5. The word we in “Very vivid, too, is the impression we receive of the social life of the sixteenth
century” refers to …

A. The writers
B. The artists
C. The readers
D. The murderers
E. The biographies
Africa Check, a fledgling fact checking website, is attempting to pin down unfounded claims made by the
country's leaders, media outlets along with widely held beliefs.

There is a common claim in Johannesburg that it has the largest man-made forest in the world. It's easy
to believe; the city has lush, green canopy that covers many neighborhoods. But it's not true, according
to Africa Check, which found that the largest man-made forest is actually in China, next to the Gobi
desert.

Debunking bogus claims, politically charged fictions and unfounded statements, Africa Check is a
website that challenges media, politicians and the occasional social media celebrity when they massage
the truth, or ignore it completely, said Julian Rademeyer, southern Africa editor for the site.

"I think the fundamental element of our work is that we are trying to get people to question what
they're told, what they read, what politicians say to them, and to look at what the information that is
there and ask essentially what the fundamental question is 'Where is the evidence?' If someone makes a
claim, where is the evidence to support that claim, and to actually interrogate those claims and not to
accept things purely for what they are," Rademeyer said.

Africa Check was launched in June 2012 by the Agence France Press foundation in partnership with the
University of Witswaterand's journalism department. Rademeyer and a researcher are the site's two
full-time employees. There is also a team of freelance reporters who work on fact checking assignments.

Following in the footsteps of popular American websites like PolitiFact and Factcheck.org, Africa Check is
the first media outlet in South Africa to solely work in fact checking. South Africa has a strong legacy of
investigative journalism and photography that dates back to the apartheid era. But like many countries,
Rademeyer says its news industry has been hampered by shrinking budgets and newsrooms.

"Because of the fact that newspapers don't have the resources they would've had in the past, or don't
have specialist beat reporters," he said. "It allows public figures and it allows politicians to make claims
that don't go checked. I think that's where we play a role. We come in and look at those claims and we
have the ability and the time to go through those claims."

Paula Fray, former editor for the Star Newspaper and a media consultant, says Africa Check may put a
much-needed pressure on newsrooms.

"At the moment Africa Check is not known as much as I'm hoping as it going to be known," she said. "I'm
hoping that eventually journalists will be writing their stories and thinking if my news editor doesn't pick
up that something hasn't been verified, Africa Check might pick up that it hasn't been verified. So I'm not
going to put anything in my stories unless I can prove it."

She also hopes it will create a greater culture of accountability. "I think the more organizations out there
holding journalism to account the better actually for the industry," Fray said.

The site also takes on myths that get repeated so often that they go unchecked. When a South African
musician with 175,000 Facebook followers made the claim that white South Africans are being killed at
an alarming rate, Africa Check looked into the facts. It found that most of the musician's claims were
exaggerated or untrue.
The site has also debunked claims made about traditional healers, South Africa's rate of asylum seekers
and a BBC report about white squatter camps in South Africa.

Long term, Rademeyer envisions the site expanding across the continent. "I really do think as a project it
could play a very important role," he said. "We've done some very basic fact checking or fact sheet-
related reporting on elements of the elections in Zimbabwe recently. We'd obviously like to do more of
that in the next elections in Zimbabwe, for instance, and elections in neighboring countries. And try to
expand our reach." With presidential elections looming next year in South Africa, Botswana,
Mozambique and Namibia, the site will be busy.

6. The pronoun it in “There is a common claim in Johannesburg that it has the largest man-made forest
in the world” refers to …

A. Johannesburg
B. Claim
C. Man-made forest
D. World
E. Africa

7. In the sentence “Africa Check is a website that challenges media, politicians and the occasional social
media celebrity when they massage the truth” the word they refer to, except …

A. Presidents
B. Politicians
C. Youtuber
D. Newspapers
E. Social media

8. The word they in “we are trying to get people to question what they're told, what they read, what
politicians say to them”

A. The readers
B. The politicians
C. The writers
D. The author
E. The celebrity

9. The word its in “Rademeyer says its news industry has been hampered by shrinking budgets and
newsrooms.”

A. South Africa
B. News industry
C. Media outlet
D. Redmeyer
E. Photography

10. The word they in “Because of the fact that newspapers don't have the resources they would've had
in the past” refers to …
 A. The newspapers
B. The resources
C. The readers
D. The writers
E. The newsrooms

11. The word it in “It found that most of the musician's claims were exaggerated or untrue.” Refers to …

A. Africa check
B. The musician
C. Facebook
D. BBC report
E. The rate

12. The word that in “We'd obviously like to do more of that in the next elections in Zimbabwe” refers to
…

A. Basic fact checking

The five aboriginal tribes that inhabit the lush jungles and beaches of the Andaman and Nicobar islands
number less than 1,000 people.

Left undisturbed in their secluded habitats, they subsisted by hunting with bows and arrows, fishing and
gathering wild fruit. Never large, the tribes' populations have shrunk over the past several decades, in
part because of increased contact with outsiders, who carry diseases the tribes can not fend off.

Most of them survived when the tsunami hit the remote islands in the Bay of Bengal on December 26.
But the land on which they live suffered severely and many anthropologists believe that the damage to
their habitat has left the tribes facing new challenges.

Initial surveys show that island coastlines have changed shape and salt water has tainted the soil that
nurtured coconut palms and fruit trees.

Anstice Justin, head of the Andaman unit of the Anthropological Survey of India, recently led a mission
to assess the damage on islands where one of the tribes live. He found sand and debris had filled the
shallow waters where the Sentinelese people used to pole their canoes to catch fish.

Mr. Justin says that could pose a major challenge to the Sentinelese, who have no knowledge of fishing
in deep waters.

"The shallow waters, the blue lagoon that was there along the south coast of the island is completely
eroded and a new field of rocks appears to be in its place," said Anstice Justin. "There will be no fishing
ground for the Sentinelese to fish around that area."

Experts say the destruction of a natural resource could make all the difference between survival and
extinction for a tribe whose numbers have dwindled to below 250.

An altered landscape is not the only problem. Experts also worry that some of the tribes are getting too
much outside contact because of the tsunami relief efforts.

Some tribes, such as the Sentinelese, have long shunned contact with the outside world. But others like
the Onges and the Great Andamanese have been exposed to outside influence in the past century and
their numbers have steadily shrunk over the same period.

After their coastal homes were destroyed by the tsunami, the Onges and the Great Andamanese had to
be evacuated and are now housed in special relief camps in the sprawling archipelago's capital, Port
Blair.

Samir Acharya who heads the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology, says endangered tribes like the
Onges now number less than 100. He says they should be moved back to their island as quickly as
possible to continue life as hunters and food gatherers in their own natural habitat.

"This will be a prolonged contact till they are taken back and resettled in their own area," said Samir
Acharya. "They have already been exposed to civilized vices like tobacco and alcohol, so one is naturally
worried about that. Ideally, they should go back to their own habitat and start living once again in their
own traditional way. That probably is one way of ensuring their continued welfare."
While most of the tribes survived, not much is known so far about the welfare of one of the most
secluded tribes, the Shompens, whose island took the brunt of the waves. A few members of the tribe
have been sighted and even shot arrows at a military helicopter that hovered over their island on a post-
tsunami reconnaissance trip.

Despite worries about how they will cope, anthropologists are elated that the tribes appear to have
escaped annihilation in the disaster.

Mr. Acharya says the people may have escaped because they moved to higher ground after they saw the
sea water go back, a phenomenon that usually occurs just before a tsunami strikes.

"Probably either by their tradition, or it is a crystallized wisdom of ages that is perhaps there in their
unconscious mind that they have learned to fear or be suspicious of receding water and that was what
has saved the day," he said.

These tribes are of Mongoloid and Negrito origin, and some are believed to have traveled to the
Andaman Islands from Africa some 60,000 years ago. They are considered one of the world's last links to
prehistoric times.

13. The word their in “But anthropologists fear that the massive damage to their habitat has left them
vulnerable.” Refers to …

A. Anthropologists
B. Nicobar Islands
C. The primitive tribes
D. The lush jungles
E. Habitats

14. The word its place in “a new field of rocks appears to be in its place” refers to

A. The area
B. The fishing ground
C. The island
D. the south coast
E. the blue lagoon

15. The word that in “They have already been exposed to civilized vices like tobacco and alcohol, so one
is naturally worried about that”

A. civilized vices
B. area
C. a prolonged contact
D. their own habitat
E. one
When the climate began to warm during the last Ice Age about 23,000 years ago, much of the Northern
Hemisphere was covered in ice.

In two new studies published this week in Nature Geoscience, researchers describe how ice sheets
behaved in the past could help scientists better predict what might happen to them in a warmer world
of our future.

University of Wisconsin geologist Anders Carlson studies ice sheet melt from land and ocean sediment
cores. His study describes what prehistoric Earth was like in North America and Northern Europe some
140,000 years ago.

"What we found in this paper was that ice that's resting on land it responded very quickly to the
warming climate, but then it didn't retreat really rapidly. It kind of chugged along and slowly melted like
an ice cube if you put a hair dryer on it," Carlson says, adding that was not the case with ice sheets
floating on the ocean. "Marine based ice sheets behave unpredictably. They may not do anything for a
while, and then they all of a sudden respond very abruptly. They can rapidly disappear."

Greenland and Antarctica hold the Earth's last remaining ice sheets. In July, satellite data showed that
97 percent of the surface of the Greenland ice sheet had turned to slush over four days, a rate faster
than at any time in recorded history. According to Carlson, it might be responding rapidly to small
changes in temperature, similar to what he saw in the prehistoric record of ice sheets on land.

"But that said, they haven't catastrophically collapsed in the past either to rapidly raise sea level in the
time scale that humans would care about, that we would be hard pressed to adapt to." Carlson says
the Antarctic marine-based ice sheet is less predictable. "What this would say from the past is that these
ice sheets, well they may not do anything for a bit. But then if you want to catastrophically raise sea
level like on the orders of a meter or two in human lifetime, there is prehistoric precedent for that
happening."

A second paper in Nature Geoscience looks back 12,000 to 7,000 years to when massive ice sheets still
covered the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. At that time, the global climate was roughly
comparable to what it is today and glaciers were melting.

The study describes abrupt sea level jumps - from one-half to two meters -from melting glaciers.

"What happens when you suddenly drain these massive amounts of fresh water into the ocean? It's
going to change ocean circulation," says co-author Torbjorn Tornqvist, an Earth scientist at Tulane
University in Louisiana.

Today, rapid melting from the Greenland ice sheet would send massive amounts of fresh water into the
North Atlantic Ocean, changing the marine environment.

"But it will also lead to potentially higher precipitation rates in the same region, which could also lead to
fresher surface waters in the North Atlantic," Tornqvist says. "So we need to understand whether those
types of changes could potentially be capable of triggering these kinds of abrupt climate events."

Tornqvist adds that understanding how abrupt climate changes affected Earth's geologic past can help
design climate models that can better predict the future.
16. The word them in “scientists better predict what might happen to them in a warmer world of our
future.” Refers to …

A. Scientists
B. Ice sheets
C. new studies
D. Northern Hemisphere
E. a warmer world

17. The word this in “What we found in this paper was that ice that's resting on land” refers to …

A. Land
B. Paper
C. the warming climate
D. an ice cube
E. a hair dryer

18. The word it in “According to Carlson, it might be responding rapidly to small changes in
temperature” refers to …

A. Greenland
B. recorded history
C. the Greenland ice sheet
D. Antarctica
E. Temperature

19. The word they in “What this would say from the past is that these ice sheets, well they may not do
anything for a bit” refers to …

A. sea level
B. The scientists
C. the Antarctic
D. Ice sheets
E. The human

20. The word it in “At that time, the global climate was roughly comparable to what it is today and
glaciers were melting.” Refers to …

A. the global climate