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PREP COURSE

Listening - Reading: LESSON 4

1. Reading: Matching features

Vocabulary input: Match the words with their synonyms

remarkable (a) language experts (n)

fixed rules (n) regularities (n)

change (v) related(v)

linguistics (n) surprising (a)

similar (a) evolve/alter (v)

Maths shows why words persist over time

In a finding that parallels the evolution of genes, researchers have shown that the more
frequently a word is used, the less likely it is to change over long periods of time.

The question of why some words evolve rapidly through time while others are preserved -
often with the same meaning in multiple languages has long plagued linguists. Two
independent teams of researchers have tackled this question from different angles, each
arriving at a remarkably similar conclusion.

"The frequency with which specific words are used in everyday language exerts a general and
law-like influence on their rates of evolution," writes Mark Pagel, author of one of two studies
published this week.

Anyone who has tried to learn English will have been struck by its excess of stubbornly
irregular verbs, which render grammatical rules unreliable. The past tense of regular verbs is
formed by adding the suffix ‘-ed’, but this luxury is not afforded to their irregular kin. Over time,
however, some irregular verbs “regularize”. For instance, the past tense of ‘help' used to be
'holp', but now it is ‘helped’.

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Mathematician Erez Lieberman, from Harvard University in Massachusetts, US, performed a

quantitative study of the rate at which English verbs such as ‘help' have become more regular
with time. Of the list of 177 irregular verbs they took from Old English, only 98 are still
irregular today. Amazingly, the changes they observed obey a very precise mathematical
description: the half-life of an irregular verb is proportional to the square root of its frequency.
In other words, they found that the more an irregular verb is used, the longer it will remain
irregular.

A separate group of academics, led by evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel from the University of
Reading, in the UK, used a statistical modelling technique to study the evolution of words from
87 different Indo-European languages.

“Throughout its 8,000-year history, all Indo-European-language speakers have used a related
sound to communicate the idea of 'two' objects - duo, due, deux, dos, etc.” Pagel commented.
"But,” he adds, “there are many different and unrelated sounds for the idea of, for example, a
bird -uccello, oiseau, pouli, pajaro, vogel, etc.”

Before now, however, nobody had proposed a mechanism for why some words should evolve
more quickly than others. According to Pagel, “our research helps us to understand why we
can still understand bits of Chaucer [a medieval poet]” and points out that this likely explains
“why we can instinctively recognise words in other Indo-European languages, just from their
sounds”.

Psychologist and language expert Russell Gray, from the University of Auckland in New
Zealand, was impressed by both findings. “Despite all the vagaries and contingencies of human
history, it seems that there are remarkable regularities in the processes of language change,”
he commented.

Match these names with their suitable statements

A. Pagel B. Lieberman C. Gray

1. We are able to recognize certain words used by people in other cultures.

2. Regardless of what happens in the world, there appear to be fixed rules that govern the way

words alter over time.

3. Words that don’t follow a standard pattern will remain that way if they are used often.

4. Certain words have kept a similar sound across many years and many countries.

5. We focused on the historical changes that have occurred in one particular language.

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TIPS FOR MATCHING FEATURES / SENTENCES

1. For matching features tasks, the questions will ___________________________ as in the

passage. The people mentioned may appear in several different sections.

2. You need to ___________________________ carefully.

3. Some of the people in the list may be distractors, and you may _______________________
of the letters.

Match these endings with the correct answers

1. For a long time, language experts have asked why

2. The English verb ‘help’ proves that

3. While cultures vary a great deal around the world

A. regular and irregular verbs change at different rates.

B. there are surprising similarities in the way different languages evolve.

C. eventually, some irregular verbs become regular.

D. some words stay the same over hundreds of years while others change quite quickly.

E. some verbs gradually become irregular over time.

3. Listening: IELTS Listening section 4 - Labeling Diagram

Vocabulary input

Word Meaning Word Meaning

nước mưa cuộn lại

bình chứa đồ bơm hơi/nước

ống dẫn lọc

lò xo dây xích

nẩy lên

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Exercise 1: Label the diagram below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each
answer

Exercise 2: Label the diagram below. Choose five answers from the box and write the
letters A-J next to questions 16-20

A bracer B chest guard C drawstring D fiberglass E fletching

F handguard G quiver H shaft I sight J tension

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Exercise 3: Label the diagram below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each
answer

TIPS AND STRATEGIES

1. Read the ___________ to know what you are going to be listening about.

2. If there is more than one diagram, ________ the features in each one.

3. ___________ what information you need for each gap.

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Homework

READING
EXERCISE 1
1. Pre-reading insight
Use the dictionary to complete the following box.
Question English Vietnamese

Surplus
19
G________ (n) Hàng hóa

20 emphasis (n)

q________ (n) Số lượng

21 p__________ Sự gần gũi

2. Actual test
Change in business organizations
A The forces that operate to bring about change in organizations can be thought of as winds
which are many and varied - from small summer breezes that merely disturb a few papers, to
mighty howling gales which cause devastation to structures and operations, causing
consequent reorientation of purpose and rebuilding. Sometimes, however, the winds die down
to give periods of relative calm, periods of relative organizational stability. Such a period was
the agricultural age, which Goodman (1995) maintains prevailed in Europe and western
societies as a whole until the early 1700s. During this period, wealth was created in the
context of an agriculturally based society influenced mainly by local markets (both customer
and labour) and factors outside people’s control, such as the weather. During this time, people
could fairly well predict the cycle of activities required to maintain life, even if that life might be
at little more than subsistence level.
B To maintain the meteorological metaphor, stronger winds of change blew to bring in the
Industrial Revolution and the industrial age. Again, according to Goodman, this lasted for a
long time, until around 1945. It was characterised by a series of inventions and innovations
that reduced the number of people needed to work the land and, in turn, provided the means
of production of hitherto rarely obtainable goods; for organizations, supplying these in ever
increasing numbers became the aim. To a large extent, demand and supply were predictable,
enabling companies to structure their organizations along what Burns and Stalker (1966)
described as mechanistic lines, that is as systems of strict hierarchical structures and firm
means of control.

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C This situation prevailed for some time, with demand still coming mainly from the domestic
market and organizations striving to fill the ‘supply gap’. Thus the most disturbing
environmental influence on organizations of this time was the demand for products, which
outstripped supply. The saying attributed to Henry Ford that ‘You can have any color of car so
long as it is black’, gives a flavor of the supply-led state of the market. Apart from any technical
difficulties of producing different colors of car, Ford did not have to worry about customers’
color preferences: he could sell all that he made. Organizations of this period can be regarded
as ‘task-oriented’, with effort being put into increasing production through more effective and
efficient production processes.
D As time passed, this favorable period for organizations began to decline. In the
neo-industrial age, people became more discriminating in the goods and services they wished
to buy and, as technological advancements brought about increased productivity, supply
overtook demand. Companies began, increasingly, to look abroad for additional markets.
E At the same time, organizations faced more intensive competition from abroad for their own
products and services. In the West, this development was accompanied by a shift in focus from
manufacturing to service, whether this merely added value to manufactured products, or
whether it was service in its own right. In the neo-industrial age of western countries, the
emphasis moved towards adding value to goods and services - what Goodman calls the
value-oriented time, as contrasted with the task- oriented and products/services-oriented
times of the past.
F Today, in the post-industrial age, most people agree that organizational life is becoming ever
more uncertain, as the pace of change quickens and the future becomes less predictable.
Writing in 1999, Nadler and Tushman, two US academics, said: ‘Poised on the eve of the next
century, we are witnessing a profound transformation in the very nature of our business
organizations. Historic forces have converged to fundamentally reshape the scope, strategies,
and structures of large enterprises.’ At a less general level of analysis, Graeme Leach, Chief
Economist at the British Institute of Directors, claimed in the Guardian newspaper (2000) that:
‘By 2020, the nine-to-five rat race will be extinct and present levels of self-employment,
commuting and technology use, as well as age and sex gaps, will have changed beyond
recognition.’ According to the article, Leach anticipates that: ‘In 20 years time, 20-25 percent of
the workforce will be temporary workers and many more will be flexible, 25 percent of people
will no longer work in a traditional office and 50 percent will work from home in some form.’
Continuing to use the ‘winds of change’ metaphor, the expectation of damaging gale-force
winds brings the need for rebuilding that takes the opportunity to incorporate new ideas and
ways of doing things.
G Whether all this will happen is arguable. Forecasting the future is always fraught with
difficulties. For instance, Mannermann (1998) sees future studies as part art and part science

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and notes: ‘The future is full of surprises, uncertainty, trends and trend breaks, irrationality and
rationality, and it is changing and escaping from our hands as time goes by. It is also the result
of actions made by innumerable more or less powerful forces.’ What seems certain is that the
organisational world is changing at a fast rate - even if the direction of change is not always
predictable. Consequently, it is crucial that organisational managers and decision makers are
aware of, and able to analyse the factors which trigger organisational change.

Questions 19-23: Match each characteristic with the correct period, A, B or C.

NB. You may use any letter more than once.
Characteristics List of periods
19. a surplus of goods. A The agricultural age.
20. an emphasis on production quantity. B The industrial age.
21. the proximity of consumers to workplaces. C The neo-industrial age.
22. a focus on the quality of goods.
23. new products and new ways of working.

EXERCISE 2:
1. Pre – reading insight
Use the dictionary to complete the following box.

English Part of speech Vietnamese

Realization n

s________ adj Sắc

community n

acceptance n

The s________ n bang

g________ v Đảm bảo

2. Actual test
The Problem of Scarce Resources
Section A

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The problem of how health-care resources should be allocated or apportioned, so that they are
distributed in both, the most just and most efficient way, is not a new one. Every health system
in an economically developed society is faced with the need to decide (either formally or
informally) what proportion of the community’s total resources should be spent on health-care;
how resources are to be apportioned; what diseases and disabilities and which forms of
treatment are to be given priority; which members of the community are to be given special
consideration in respect of their health needs; and which forms of treatment are the most
cost-effective.
Section B
What is new is that, from the 1950s onwards, there have been certain general changes in
outlook about the finitude of resources as a whole and of health-care resources in particular, as
well as more specific changes regarding the clientele of health-care resources and the cost to
the community of those resources. Thus, in the 1950s and 1960s, there emerged an awareness
in Western societies that resources for the provision of fossil fuel energy were finite and
exhaustible and that the capacity of nature or the environment to sustain economic
development and population was also finite. In other words, we became aware of the obvious
fact that there were ‘limits to growth’. The new consciousness that there were also severe
limits to health-care resources was part of this general revelation of the obvious. Looking back,
it now seems quite incredible that in the national health systems that emerged in many
countries in the years immediately after the 1939-45 World War, it was assumed without
question that all the basic health needs of any community could be satisfied, at least in
principle; the ‘invisible hand’ of economic progress would provide.
Section C
However, at exactly the same time as this new realization of the finite character of health-care
resources was sinking in, an awareness of a contrary kind was developing in Western societies:
that people have a basic right to health-care as a necessary condition of a proper human life.
Like education, political and legal processes and institutions, public order, communication,
transport and money supply, health-care came to be seen as one of the fundamental social
facilities necessary for people to exercise their other rights as autonomous human beings.
People are not in a position to exercise personal liberty and to be self-determining if they are
poverty-stricken, or deprived of basic education, or do not live within a context of law and
order. In the same way, basic health-care is a condition of the exercise of autonomy.
Section D
Although the language of ‘rights’ sometimes leads to confusion, by the late 1970s it was
recognised in most societies that people have a right to health-care (though there has been
considerable resistance in the United States to the idea that there is a formal right to
health-care). It is also accepted that this right generates an obligation or duty for the state to
ensure that adequate health-care resources are provided out of the public purse. The state has
no obligation to provide a health-care system itself, but to ensure that such a system is
provided. Put another way, basic health-care is now recognised as a ‘public good’, rather than a
‘private good’ that one is expected to buy for oneself. As the 1976 declaration of the World
Health Organisation put it: ‘The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one

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of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political
belief, economic or social condition.’ As has just been remarked, in a liberal society basic health
is seen as one of the indispensable conditions for the exercise of personal autonomy.
Section E
Just at the time when it became obvious that health-care resources could not possibly meet the
demands being made upon them, people were demanding that their fundamental right to
health-care be satisfied by the state. The second set of more specific changes that have led to
the present concern about the distribution of health-care resources stems from the dramatic
rise in health costs in most OECD1 countries, accompanied by large-scale demographic and
social changes which have meant, to take one example, that elderly people are now major (and
relatively very expensive) consumers of health-care resources. Thus in OECD countries as a
whole, health costs increased from 3.8% of GDP1 2 in 1960 to 7% of GDP in 1980, and it has
been predicted that the proportion of health costs to GDP will continue to increase. (In the US
the current figure is about 12% of GDP, and in Australia about 7.8% of GDP)
As a consequence, during the 1980s a kind of doomsday scenario (analogous to similar
doomsday extrapolations about energy needs and fossil fuels or about population increases)
was projected by health administrators, economists, and politicians, In this scenario, ever-rising
health costs were matched against static or declining resources.

Questions 5-8: Classify the following as first occurring

A between 1945 and 1950
B between 1950 and 1980
C after 1980

5. the realization that the resources of the national health systems were limited
6. a sharp rise in the cost of health-care
7. a belief that all health-care resources the community needed would be produced by
economic growth
8. an acceptance of the role of the state in guaranteeing the provision of health-care

EXERCISE 3:
1. Pre-reading insight
Find the Vietnamese meaning for the bold words in the following sentences.
1. He has no venture in the present. _______________
2. If you stop and think about it, ignorance is in your best interests. ____________
3. It is easy to underrate the importance in religion of a change of names. ____________
4. These questions were never properly answered by them. ______________
5. He explained the absence of his fangs. ____________
6. If it weren't for gravity, life on earth would be impossible. _____________

2. Actual test

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Science in Space
How will NASA transform the International Space Station from a building site into a
cutting-edge research laboratory?
A premier, world-class laboratory in low Earth orbit. That was how the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration agency (NASA) sold the International Space Station (ISS) to the US
Congress in 2001. Today no one can doubt the agency's technological ambition. The most
complex engineering project ever attempted has created an enormous set of interlinked
modules that orbits the planet at more than 27,000 kilometres per hour. It might be travelling
fast but, say critics, as a lab it is going nowhere. So far, it has gone through $150 billion.

So where should its future priorities lie? This question was addressed at the recent Ist annual
ISS research and development conference in Colorado. Among the presenters was Satoshi
Iwase of Aichi Medical University in Japan who has spent several years developing an
experiment that could help solve one of the key problems that humans will face in space:
keeping our bodies healthy in weightlessness. One thing that physiologists have learned is that
without gravity our bodies begin to lose strength, leaving astronauts with weakened bones,
muscles and cardiovascular systems. To counter these effects on a long-duration mission to,
say, Mars, astronauts will almost certainly need to create their own artificial gravity. This is
where Iwase comes in. He leads a team designing a centrifuge for humans. In their preliminary
design, an astronaut is strapped into the seat of a machine that resembles an exercise bike.
Pedalling provides a workout for the astronaut's muscles and cardiovascular system, but it also
causes the seat to rotate vertically around a central axis so the rider experiences artificial
gravity while exercising.

The centrifuge project highlights the station's potential as a research lab. Similar machines
have flown in space aboard NASA's shuttles, but they couldn't be tested for long enough to
prove whether they were effective. It's been calculated that to properly assess a centrifuge's
impact on human physiology, astronauts would have to ride it for 30 minutes a day for at least
two months. The only way to test this is in weightlessness, and the only time we have to do
that is on the space station, says Laurence Young, a space medicine expert at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

There are certainly plenty of ideas for other experiments: but many projects have yet to fly.
Even if the centrifuge project gets the green light, it will have to wait another five years before
the station's crew can take a spin. Lengthy delays like this are one of the key challenges for
NASA, according to an April 2011 report from the US National Academy of Sciences. Its
authors said they were 'deeply concerned' about the state of NASA's science research, and
made a number of recommendations. Besides suggesting that the agency reduces the time

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between approving experiments and sending them into space, it also recommended setting
clearer research priorities.

NASA has already begun to take action, hiring management consultants ProOrbis to develop a
plan to cut through the bureaucracy. Congress also directed NASA to hire an independent
organisation, the Centre for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), to help manage the
station's US lab facilities. One of CASIS's roles is to convince public and private investors that
science on the station is worth the spend because judged solely by the number of papers
published, the ISS certainly seems poor value: research on the station has generated about
3,100 papers since 1998. The Hubble Space Telescope, meanwhile, has produced more than
11,300 papers in just over 20 years, yet it cost less than one-tenth of the price of the space
station.

Yet Mark Uhran, assistant associate administrator for the ISS, refutes the criticism that the
station hasn't done any useful research. He points to progress made on a salmonella vaccine,
for example. To get the ISS research back on track, CASIS has examined more than 100
previous microgravity experiments to identify promising research themes. From this, it has
opted to focus on life science and medical research, and recently called for proposals for
experiments on muscle wasting, osteoporosis and the immune system. The organisation also
maintains that the ISS should be used to develop products with commercial application and to
test those that are either close to or already on the market. Investment from outside
organisations is vital, says Uhran, and a balance between academic and commercial research
will help attract this.

The station needs to attract cutting-edge research, yet many scientists seem to have little idea
what goes on aboard it. Jeanne DiFrancesco at ProOrbis conducted more than 200 interviews
with people from organisations with potential interests in low gravity studies. Some were
aware of the ISS but they didn't know what's going on up there, she says.

'Others know there's science, but they don't know what kind.' According to Alan Stern,
planetary scientist, the biggest public relations boost for the ISS may come from the privately
funded space flight industry. Companies like SpaceX could help NASA and its partners when it
comes to resupplying the ISS, as it suggests it can reduce launch costs by two-thirds. Virgin
Atlantic's SpaceShip Two or Zero2Infinity's high- altitude balloon could also boost the space
station's fortunes. They might not come close to the ISS's orbit, yet Stern believes they will
revolutionise the way we, the public, see space. Soon everyone will be dreaming of
interplanetary travel again, he predicts. More importantly, scientists are already queuing for
seats on these low-gravity space-flight services so they can collect data during a few minutes
of weightlessness. This demand for low-cost space flight could eventually lead to a service

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running on a more frequent basis, giving researchers the chance to test their ideas before
submitting a proposal for experiments on the ISS. Getting flight experience should help them
win a slot on the station, says Stern.

Match each opinion with the correct person, A, B, C or D

Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 31-35 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

List of people
A Laurence Young
B Authors of the US National Academy of Sciences report
C Mark Uhran
D Jeanne DiFrancesco

31 The ISS should be available for business-related ventures.

32 There is general ignorance about what kinds of projects are possible on the ISS.
33 The process of getting accepted projects onto the ISS should be speeded up.
34 Some achievements of the ISS are underrated.
35 To properly assess new space technology, there has to be an absence of gravity.

LISTENING

EXERCISE 1

Complete the flowchart below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer

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EXERCISE 2

Complete the diagram. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer

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