EAP Academic Reading

Student’s full name: ………………………………….. Class:…………… Date:…………………….......

WEEK 11: MOCK TEST

Part 1: Complete the following sentences using the correct form of the word
given.

1. We often hear that texting is a scourge; it spells the decline and fall of (literate) …
literacy…………................ among young people.
2. Human language is (primary) ……primarily………................ oral.
3. If (human) …humanity…………................ had existed for 24 hours, then writing only came
along at about 11:07 P.M.
4. Speaking is more (telegraph) ………telegraphic……................ than writing.
5. Speaking is less (reflect) …reflective…………................ than writing.
6. Compare typing on a typewriter or on a computer with the speed and (easy) …ease…………. of
texting on a smartphone, not to mention the (immediate) …immediacy…………................ of the
feedback from the (receive) ……recipient……….................
7. Texting is a new and important form of discourse – a (miracle) ……miraculous…................
thing.
8. Texting allows us to expand our (language) ……linguistic………................ repertoire.
9. In 1871, the president of Havard University said bad spelling and (elegant) …
inelegance…………... of expression in writing were common among students at the time.
10. I got fed up with his procrastinating and lack of (spontaneous) …spontaneity
11. Aziz uses personal stories and (culture) …cross-cultural/ intercultural…………................
education to promote peace and to bring people from different cultures together.
12. The reading passage is an (adapt) …adaptation…………................ of a blog post.
13. All we needed for soccer was a ball and a street with (limit) ……limited………................ traffic.
14. He traveled to Brazil to make his dream of attending the World Cup a (real) …reality…………..
15. He found himself (surround) ……surrounded………................ by the excited buzz of many
fans.
16. Australian and Spanish fans refused to join a fight based on (national) ……
nationalism………......... in sport.
17. People learn about the countries of the teams they support and about the history of their
(oppose) …opponents…………................ .
18. Millions of people learned about the (diverse) ……diversity………................ of these countries.
19. Sports can be a (divide) ……dividing………................ force, but the true spirit of sports is about
(unite) ……unity………................, fun and (innovate) ……innovation………................ .
20. The counsellor came up to her with a (concern) …concerned…………................ expression on
her face.
21. She felt kind of (guilt) …guilty…………................ about this.
22. All the times that I got the message that somehow my quiet and (introvert) …introverted……....
style of being was not (necessary) …necessarily…………................ the right way to go.
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23. I made the self-negating choices so (reflex) ……reflexively………................ that I wasn’t even
aware that I was making them.
24. When it comes to (creative) ……creativity………................ and to (lead) ……
leadership………................, we need introverts doing what they do best.
25. The most creative people also have a serious streak of (introvert) ……
introversion………................ in them.
26. She has written an (insight) ……insightful………................ account of the modern art world.
27. We can’t be in a group of people without (instinct) ……instinctively………................ mirroring
and mimicking their opinions.
28. Groups (fame) ………famously……................ follow the opinions of the most (dominate) …
dominant…… or (charisma) ……charismatic………................ person in the room even
though there’s zero (correlate) …correlation............. between being the best talker and having
the best ideas.
29. The lower animals, like man, (manifest) …manifestly…………................ feel pleasure and
pain.
30. Over generations, (evolve) …evolution…………................ naturally selects the more
intelligent animals of each species, (able) ……enabling………................ each species to
become more intelligent.
31. Others hold (contrast) ……contrary………................ point of view: that human intelligence is
(fundamental) ………fundamentally……................ different.
32. Other species are (capable) ……incapable………................ of the complex (language) ……
linguistic………......... systems through which we communicate ideas and express ourselves.
33. Animal intelligence may be superior in (special) ……specialized………................ ways that
our brains are not yet able to fully understand.
34. Dolphins can communicate through an underwater keyboard and symbols that correspond to
whistles and (play) ………playful……................ activities.
35. Bonobos were able to create musical (compose) ……compositions………................ .
36. Space is a harsh, (hospitable) ………inhospitable……................ frontier and we are
explorers, not (colony) ……conolizers………................ .
37. Shortly before the crash the pilot had reported a (function) …malfunction...... of the
aircraft's navigation system.
38. Tiny shards of metal or rock can pierce their spacesuits and cause (compress) …
decompression……
39. Another emergency that astronauts prepare for is (accident) ……accidental………................
(detach) ……detachment………................ from the spaceship.
40. Astronauts go through (count) ……countless………................ hours of training for spacewalks
to (familiar) ……familiarize………................ themselves with the route they will take after
leaving the airlock.
41. Given the (predict) ……unpredictable………................ risks of space missions, astronauts
train to deal with the feeling of fear.
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42. A former NASA astronaut describes the importance of (rational) ……
rationalization……................ in overcoming fear.
43. Repeated (expose) ……exposure………................ to the feared situation or object can help
reduce your fear.
44. Increasing (familiar) ………familiarity……................ with the source of your fear will help you
to feel confident that it is (rational) ……irrational………................ .
45. Each step increases the level of (anxious) ………anxiety……................ slightly so that you
gradually adapt to more stressful situations.

Part 2: Read and write a summary.

Animals Are Smarter Than Humans Give Them Credit For

By Melissa Dahl
PART 1
According to the message of the new book by famed primatologist Frans de Waal is: Who knows?
Or maybe even: Who cares? The book was released this week, and is rather straightforwardly
titled Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? In it, de Waal makes the convincing
argument that, for too long, scientists have judged animal intelligence using a human yardstick,
devising tests from a human-centric point of view that, really, an animal shouldn’t be expected to
pass. Just because an animal cannot speak or read, for example, does not automatically imply that
they cannot think — and comparing animals to humans, or even one species of animal to another, is
not a very useful way to go about studying intelligence.
Animals are smarter than we tend to give them credit for — it’s just that they’re smart on their terms,
which often look nothing like our own. When an octopus, for instance, changes its color or shape in
order to match its surroundings, that takes brainpower; when a bat navigates its environment using
echolocation that takes brainpower, too. In a very real way, these capabilities are in fact
demonstrations of these animals’ versions of intelligence.
PART 2
You write in your book about the misguided ways that researchers have tried to study animal
intelligence. What’s a really egregious example to you?
There’s a lot of emphasis on language in terms of cognition, which I don’t really agree with, because
I’m not sure we think in terms of language. Language is wonderful to talk about what you thought,
and to communicate your thinking — but whether language is what determines thinking, I don’t think
anyone has proven that. No one has proven that language is needed to think.
Preverbal children think — there’s lots of studies now on infants. And lots of animals can plan ahead
and think back to specific events, and language is not needed for that. And it used to be assumed
when, for example, the studies with Alex the parrot started — there were lots of things that said you
need language to do this, you need language to do that. So, for example, Alex the parrot can count
up things. If you show him three chips and two chips and then one chip and you cover them all up
and you say, ‘How many are there?’ And he says, ‘Six!’ So he can count, but he has —strictly
speaking — he has no language. So many of these intellectual capacities we relate to language,
when we actually have no proof at all that language is needed.
PART 3
Let’s back way up for a second — what is intelligence? How do you prefer to define it?
The question is: How do you solve problems in your environment? How do you deal with them? Is it
in a very complex way? Is it in a simple, kind of reflex way? If it’s complex and flexible, we usually
call that intelligence.

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But the way an elephant does that or the way a bat does that or an octopus is very different from
what we do. Now, the elephant is a bit more similar to us because it’s a mammal. But the octopus
solves problems like escaping from predators by changing color — which we really cannot do! But
that takes some brainpower, also, to do. Because he needs to take in the environment, and then
copy the environment in terms of color — and you even have these mimic octopuses, who can
mimic the the color of certain fish swimming by. They end up the color of that fish, and they swim like
that fish. Which is just incredible, and it’s very complex.
It cannot simply be instinct, because you cannot be born with a template of a fish in your body, as an
octopus, I think. So they must be learning that by watching these animals. And so we don’t know
how they do it, but there are these very complex cognitions going on, that have very little to do with
what we appreciate very much in ourselves, that are very good solutions for these animals. We need
to judge them on their terms, instead of comparing them with us.

So then, what are some other examples of animals demonstrating brainpower that we might
not automatically recognize as “intelligence”?
I mention the jumping spider in my book. The jumping spider goes to a web of another spider, and
taps the web, and gets the spider to come closer — the other spider thinks there’s a prey in the web,
like a fly or something. And then the jumping spider — well, it jumps on the other spider, the one that
has made that web, and eats it.
So the jumping spider is able to mimic the movements of certain kinds of typical prey, like flies, and
they apparently learn that. There’s evidence that by doing this very often, they learn which kind of
tricks to use on the web, or which kind of stimulation to use to get the other spider to come over so
that they can eat it. It’s much more complex than people would assume — it’s intelligence. It’s not
like they stumble into a web and they take the spider. No, they are working on this. They are working
many times on this before they get it right.
So it sounds like the definition of intelligence is whether the animal demonstrates the ability
to learn.
It’s the ability to learn, and it’s the question of whether it’s a flexible use of that knowledge. If you
always do the same thing under the same circumstances, we usually don’t call that intelligence.
That’s more like routine behavior. But if you have flexible solutions to flexible problems,
that’s intelligence.
Write 1 or 2 sentences to summarise each part.

Part 1 For far too long, according to preimalogogist Frans de Waal, author of the book "Are We
Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?" scientists have evaluated animals'
intelligence using human intelligence scales such as thinking capacity, speaking ability,
and reading ability. This is an ineffective method of research. Because animals'
intelligence grows in their own terms in order to adapt to their surroundings, and it is
derived from brainpower.

Part 2 According to Waal, language is fantastic for communicating, but it is not necessary for
thinking; furthermore, some research has been conducted on preverbal children's thinking
or the planning and thinking of many animals about certain happenings, although this does
not contain language. Alex the Parrot, for example, can count correctly but not precisely
talk, showing that language might be connected to certain intellectual skills but not
necessarily decisive.

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Part 3 To define intelligence, there isn't a precise standard; for example, octopuses can change
their color to match the environment to avoid certain environmental hazards, then return to
their original color, but this is not possible for humans; or another spice, spides can micmic
some movement from prey by practicing frequently, and then use it to get food.
Intelligence is the ability to learn, practice, and adapt tactics to diverse situations.