Read the following passage and complete the tasks.
Sleepy Students Perform Worse
A. Staying up an hour or two past bedtime makes it far harder for kids to learn, say scientists who deprived youngsters of sleep and tested whether their teachers could tell the difference. They could. If parents want their children to thrive academically, “Getting them to sleep on time is as important as getting them to school on time," said psychologist Gahan Fallone, who conducted the research at Brown Medical School.
B. The study, unveiled Thursday at an American Medical Association (AMA) science writers meeting, was conducted on healthy children who had no evidence of sleep- or learning-related disorders. Difficulty paying attention was among the problems the sleepy youngsters faced - raising the question of whether sleep deprivation could prove even worse for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Fallone now is studying that question, and suspects that sleep problems “could hit children with ADHD as a double whammy”.
C. Sleep experts have long warned that Americans of all ages do not get enough shuteye. Sleep is important for health, bringing a range of benefits that, as Shakespeare put it, “knits up the ravelled sleave of care”. Not getting enough is linked to a host of problems, from car crashes as drivers doze off to crippled memory and inhibited creativity. Exactly how much sleep correlates with school performance is hard to prove. So, Brown researchers set out to test whether teachers could detect problems with attention and learning when children stayed up late - even if the teachers had no idea how much sleep their students actually got.
D. They recruited seventy-four 6- to 12-year-olds from Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts for the three-week study. For one week, the youngsters went to bed and woke up at their usual times. They already were fairly good sleepers, getting nine to 9.5 hours of sleep a night. Another week, they were assigned to spend no fewer than ten hours in bed a night. The other week, they were kept up later than usual: First- and second-graders were in bed no more than eight hours and the older children no more than 6.5 hours. In addition to parents’ reports, the youngsters wore motion detecting wrist monitors to ensure compliance.
E. Teachers were not told how much the children slept or which week they stayed up late, but rated the students on a variety of performance measures each week. The teachers reported significantly more academic problems during the week of sleep deprivation, the study, which will be published in the journal Sleep in December, concluded. Students who got eight hours of sleep or less a night were more forgetful, had the most trouble learning new lessons, and had the most problems paying attention, reported Fallone, now at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology.
F. Sleep has long been a concern of educators. Potter-Burns Elementary School sends notes to parents reminding them to make sure students get enough sleep prior to the school’s yearly achievement testing. Another school considers it important enough to include in the school’s monthly newsletters. Definitely, there is an impact on students’ performance if they come to school tired. However, the findings may change physician practice, said Dr. Regina Benjamin, a family physician in Bayou La Batre, who reviewed the data at the Thursday’s AMA meeting. “I don't ask about sleep” when evaluating academically struggling students, she noted. “I’m going to start.”
G. So how much sleep do kids need? Recommended amounts range from about ten to eleven hours a night for young elementary students, to 8.5 hours for teens. Fallone insists that his own second-grader get ten hours a night, even when it meant dropping soccer-season that practice did not start until 7:30 - too late for her to fit in dinner and time to wind down before she needed to be snoozing. “It’s tough,” he acknowledged, but “parents must believe in the importance of sleep."
Which paragraph contains each of the following pieces of information?
Traffic accidents are sometimes caused by lack of sleep.
The number of children included in the study.
How two schools are trying to deal with the problem.
How the effect of having less sleep was measured.
Complete the following sentences using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each gap.
Fallone is now studying the sleep patterns of children with .
The researchers used that show movement to check that children went to bed at the right time.
Students with less sleep had problems with memory, remembering new material, and .
Fallone admitted that it was for children to get enough sleep.
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage?
| TRUE | if the statement agrees with the information |
| FALSE | if the statement contradicts the information |
| NOT GIVEN | If there is no information on this |
The results of the study were first distributed to principals of American schools.
Some of the children in the study had previously shown signs of sleeping problems.
The study could influence how doctors deal with children’s health problems.
Fallone does not let his daughter play soccer.
Staying up later is acceptable if the child is doing homework.
Read the following passage and complete the tasks.
The intense rate of change in the world
A. The intense rate of change in the world gives rise to numerous new products – many of them electronic. What is brand new and state-of-the-art one month is quickly relegated to old model status the next. Within the world of computing, this frenetic pace of change has led to millions of out-dated, worthless products. Keystone, an American-based research company reported, 'In 2005, one computer became obsolete for every new one introduced in die market. By the year 2010, experts estimate that in the USA there will be over 500 million obsolete computers. Most of these computers will be destined for landfills, incinerators or hazardous waste exports.' Old, outdated keyboards, monitors and hard drives all combine to produce what is now widely known as ‘e-waste’ and the way to appropriately dispose of them is proving to be a challenge.
B. Most computers are a complicated assembly of hundreds of different materials, many of which are highly toxic. Most computer users are unaware that these toxic metals, acids, plastics and other substances have been shown to be the cause of various blood diseases and cancers. Amongst workers involved in the recycling of computer products, there has been a proliferation of blood diseases. Printed circuit boards, for example, contain heavy metals such as antimony, silver, chromium, zinc, lead, tin and copper. Environmentalist Kieran Shaw estimates there is hardly any other product for which the sum of the environmental impacts of raw material, extraction, industrial refining and production, use and disposal is so extensive as for printed circuit boards.
C. Workers involved in the disposal of computers via incineration are themselves being exposed to significantly high levels of toxicity. Copper, for example, is a catalyst in the release of harmful chemicals when exposed to the high tempera lures of incineration. In US and Canadian environments, incineration is one of the greatest sources of heavy metal contamination of the atmosphere. Unfortunately, another form of incineration, smelting, can present dangers similar to incineration. Concerns have been expressed that the Noranda Smelter in Quebec, Canada is producing atmospheric pollutants from the residual presence of plastics in the e-scrap.
D. In an effort to explore other alternatives, landfills have been tried, studies have shown, however, that even the best landfills are not completely safe. In feet, the shortcomings of dealing with waste via modern landfills are well documented. The main ‘offender’ in the area of metal leaching is mercury. In varying degrees, mercury escapes or leaches from certain electronic devices such as circuit breakers, condensers and computer circuit boards into the soil. According to Phil Stevenson, managing director of CleanCo a recycling plant in the UK, 'Everyone knows that landfills leak – it has become common knowledge. Even the best, state-of-the-art landfills are not completely tight throughout their lifetimes, to one degree or another, a certain amount of chemical and metal leaching occurs. The situation is far worse for older or less stringent dump sites. If uncontrolled fires are allowed to burn through these landfill areas, other toxic chemicals such as lead and cadmium are released.'
E. An overwhelming majority of the world’s hazardous e-waste is generated by the industrialised market economies. Because labour costs are cheap and government regulations in some countries are decidedly lax, the exporting of e-waste has been practiced as another method to deal with its disposal. In the USA, for example, Datatek, a research company, estimated that it was 12 times cheaper to ship old computer monitors to China than it was to recycle them. Data on the prevalence of this activity is scarce due to past bad publicity and dealers of e-scrap not bothering to determine the final destination of the products they sell. In 1989 the world community established the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste for final Disposal to stop the industrialised nations of the OECD from dumping their waste on and in less-developed countries.
F. Europe has taken the lead on e-waste management by requiring governments to implement laws controlling the production and disposal of electrical products. The European Union (EL) lias drafted legislation on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (the WEEE Directive) based on a concept known as Extended Producer Responsibility (EFR). Essentially, EFR places the responsibility of the production and disposal squarely on the shoulders of the producers of electronic products, it requires that producers consider carefully the environmental impact of the products they bring to the marketplace. The aim of EPR is to encourage producers of electrical equipment to prevent pollution and reduce resource and energy use at each stage of the product file cycle. The lead in Europe has been necessary because WEEE is about three times higher than the growth of any other municipal waste streams.
G. WEE legislation will phase out the use of toxic substances such as mercury, cadmium and lead in electronic and electrical goods by the year 2008. It will require producers of electrical equipment to be responsible financially for the collection, recycling and disposal of their products. It has stipulated that products containing any lead, mercury, cadmium and other toxic substances must not be incinerated. It encourages producers to integrate an increasing quantity of recycled material in any new products they produce. In fact, between 70% and 90% by weight of all collected equipment must be recycled or re-used. These directives will go a long way toward improving the e-waste problem in Europe and other governments of the world should look seriously at implementation of some or all of the legislation.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
|
List of headings i. Exporting e-waste ii. The hazards of burning computer junk iii. Blame developed countries for e-waste iv. Landfills are not satisfactory v. Producer’s legal responsibility vi. The dangers of computer circuit boards vii. Electronic changes bring waste viii. European e-waste laws ix. The dangerous substances found in computers x. Landfills and mercury leaching xi. New products must contain recycled products |
Paragraph A:
Paragraph B:
Paragraph C:
Paragraph D:
Paragraph E:
Paragraph F:
Paragraph G:
Classify the following features as belong to
| A. Noranda Smelter |
| B. Datatek |
| C. Keystone |
| D. CleanCo |
Waste sites without strict dumping rules leads to big problems.
E-waste should be re-located to other countries.
Most old computers will be buried or burned.
It is impossible to contain metal waste in soil.
According to the information in the text, which THREE of the following pollution laws have been proposed in Europe?
Read the following passage and complete the tasks.
GENEALOGY
A. Genealogy, the study of tracing family connections and relationships through history – so building a cohesive family tree, has become an increasingly popular hobby from non-specialist enthusiasts over recent decades. The introduction of the Internet has, in many ways, spurred interest levels since historical information has been made far more accessible than previously. Experts warn, however, that sources obtained from the internet must be considered with caution as they may often contain inaccuracies, often advising novice genealogists to join a family history society where they are able to learn useful skills from experienced researchers.
B. Originally, prior to developing a more mainstream following, the practice of genealogy focused on establishing the ancestral links of rulers and noblemen often with the purpose of disputing or confirming the legitimacy of inherited rights to wealth or position. More recently, genealogists are often interested in not only where and when previous generations of families lived but also details of their lifestyle and motivations, interpreting the effects of law, political restrictions, immigration and the social conditions on an individual’s or family’s behaviour at the given time. Genealogy searches may also result in location of living relatives and consequently family reunions, in some cases helping to reunite family members who had been separated in the past due to fostering/adoptlon, migration or war.
C. In Australia, there has been a great deal of interest of late, from families wishing to trace their links to the early settlers. As a result of the loss of the American colonies in the 1700s, Britain was in need of an alternative destination for prisoners who could not be accommodated in the country’s overcrowded penal facilities. In 1787, the ‘First Fleet’ which consisted of a flotilla of ships carrying just over 1300 people (of which 753 were convicts or their children and the remainder marines, officers and their family members) left Britain’s shores for Australia. On January 26, 1788 – now celebrated as Australia Day – the fleet landed at Sydney Cove and the first steps to European settlement began.
D. Genealogy research has led to a shift in attitudes towards convict heritage amongst contemporary Australian society, as family members have been able to establish that their ancestors were, in fact, not hardened and dangerous criminals, but had, in most cases, been harshly punished for minor crimes inspired by desperation and dire economic circumstances. So dramatic has the shift in attitudes been that having family connections to passengers on the ‘First Fleet’ is considered nothing less than prestigious. Convicts Margaret Dawson and Elizabeth Thakery were amongst the first European women to ever set foot on Australian soil. Details about the former, whose initial death sentence passed for stealing clothes from her employer was commuted to deportation, and the latter expelled for stealing handkerchiefs along with others of similar fate are now available on the internet for eager descendants to track.
E. Although many of the deported convicts were forbidden to return to Britain, others such as Dawson, were, in theory, expelled for a given term. In reality, however, the costs of attempting to return to the mother country were well beyond the means of the majority. Genealogists now attribute the successful early development of Australia to such ex-convicts who decided to contribute fully to society once their sentence had been served. Many rewards were available to prisoners who displayed exemplary behaviour, including land grants of 30 acres or more, tools for developing and farming the land and access to convict labour. Genealogy studies also show that many former prisoners went on to hold powerful positions in the newly forming Australia society, examples being Francis Greenway – a British architect expelled on conviction of fraud – who went on to design many of Sydney’s most prominent colonial buildings, and Alexander Munro, transported after stealing cheese at the age of 15, who would later build Australia’s first gas works and hold the position of Town Mayor.
F. In North America, the Mormon Church, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, holds two major genealogical databases, the International Genealogical Index and the Ancestral File, which contain records of hundreds of million individuals who lived between 1500 and 1900 in the United States, Canada and Europe. Resources available to genealogy enthusiasts include the Salt Lake City based Family History Library and more than 4000 branches where microfilms and microfiches can be rented for research and the newer Family Search internet site which provides open access to numerous databases and research sources. Such data sharing practices are central and crucial to genealogical research and the internet has proven to be a major tool in facilitating ease of transfer of information in formats suitable for use in forums and via email. The global level of interest in and demand for such information has proven so intense, that traffic load on release of sources such as Family Search and the British Census for 1901 led to temporary collapse of the host servers.
G. Experts advise that reliability of sources used for genealogical research should be evaluated in light of four factors which may influence their accuracy, these being the knowledge of the informant, the bias and mental state of the informant, the passage of time and potential for compilation error. First, genealogists should consider who the information was provided by and what he or she could be ascertained to have known. For example, a census record alone is considered unreliable as no named source for the information is likely to be found. A death certificate signed by an identified doctor, however, can be accepted as more reliable. In the case of bias or mental state, researchers are advised to consider that even when information is given by what could be considered a reliable source, that there may have been motivation to be untruthful – continuing to claim a government benefit or avoidance of taxation, for example.
H. Generally, data recorded at the same time or close to the event being researched is considered to be more reliable than records written at a later point in time, as – while individuals may intend to give a true representation of events – factual information may be misrepresented due to lapses in memory and forgotten details. Finally, sources may be classified as either original or derivative. The latter refers to photocopies, transcriptions, abstracts, translations, extractions, and compilations and has more room for error due to possible misinterpretations, typing errors or loss of additional and crucial parts of the original documentation.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B and D-G from the list of headings below.
|
List of headings i. An Embarrassing Heritage ii. Assessing Validity iii. Diversity of Application iv. Interpretation Errors v. Past Usage vi. Useful Sources vii. Australasian Importance viii. Changing Viewpoints ix. Significant Roles |
Example: Paragraph C: vii
Paragraph B:
Paragraph D:
Paragraph E:
Paragraph F:
Paragraph G:
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage?
|
TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN |
if the statement agrees with the information if the statement contradicts the information if there is no information on this |
Early applications of genealogy focused on behaviour, movement and settlement of populations.
The punishment of deportation was reserved for those who posed a serious threat to British society.
Some ex-convicts chose to stay in Australia due to the opportunities it presented.
Overwhelming interest in obtaining genealogical information has led to technological difficulties.
Why has recreational genealogy become more popular?
Whose original sentence for breaking the law was reduced?
What is fundamental to genealogical research?
Why does census information need to be approached with caution?