Listening Comprehension
GRADE 10
Better Than Human (by Kevin Kelly)
It’s hard to believe you’d have an economy at all if you gave pink slips to more than half the labor force. But that - in slow motion - is what the industrial revolution did to the workforce of the early 19th century. Two hundred years ago, 70 percent of American workers lived on the farm. Today automation has eliminated all but 1 percent of their jobs, replacing them (and their work animals) with machines. But the displaced workers did not sit idle. Instead, automation created hundreds of millions of jobs in entirely new fields. Those who once farmed were now manning the legions of factories that churned out farm equipment, cars, and other industrial products. Since then, wave upon wave of new occupations have arrived - appliance repairman, offset printer, food chemist, photographer, web designer - each building on previous automation. Today, the vast majority of us are doing jobs that no farmer from the 1800s could have imagined by the end of this century, 70 percent of today’s occupations will likewise be replaced by automation. Yes, even you will have your job taken away by machines. In other words, robot replacement is just a matter of time. This upheaval is being led by a second wave of automation, one that is centered on artificial cognition, cheap sensors, machine learning, and distributed smarts. This deep automation will touch all jobs, from manual labor to knowledge work.
First, machines will consolidate their gains in already-automated industries. After robots finish replacing assembly line workers, they will replace the workers in warehouses. Speedy bots able to lift 150 pounds all day long will retrieve boxes, sort them, and load them onto trucks. Fruit and vegetable picking will continue to be robotized until no humans pick outside of specialty farms. Pharmacies will feature a single pill-dispensing robot in the back while the pharmacists focus on patient consulting. Next, the more dexterous chores of cleaning in offices and schools will be taken over by late-night robots, starting with easy-to-do floors and windows and eventually getting to toilets. The highway legs of long-haul trucking routes will be driven by robots embedded in truck cabs.
All the while, robots will continue their migration into white-collar work. We already have artificial intelligence in many of our machines; we just don’t call it that. Witness one piece of software by Narrative Science that can write newspaper stories about sports games directly from the games’ stats or generate a synopsis of a company’s stock performance each day from bits of text around the web. Any job dealing with reams of paperwork will be taken over by bots, including much of medicine. Even those areas of medicine not defined by paperwork, such as surgery, are becoming increasingly robotic. The rote tasks of any information-intensive job can be automated. It doesn’t matter if you are a doctor, lawyer, architect, reporter, or even programmer: the robot takeover will be epic.
And it has already begun.
GRADE 10
Listening comprehension test
2. Choose the correct letter (a, b or c) – (2 points each)
GRADE 10
Reading Comprehension, test 1
If you asked a random person on the street what they though the purpose of school was, they would probably say something about education and be done with it. Beyond simply educating the masses at their most receptive ages, school is, more than anything else, about preparing the student, as a whole person, for the real world.
Many students can’t remember many of their lessons from primary and secondary education. But they will often remember certain defining social situations, and whatever growth accompanied those events. If, after completing secondary school, they decided to further study a subject from secondary school, they would likely remember a lot of information pertaining to that one subject, but may not be able to recall much from other subjects. School is much more than simply sitting in class and taking part in lessons.
Schools have, for a long time, also recognized the importance of growing the entire person, rather than just their brain. Concerts, dances, open- and close-of-semester ceremonies are just a few examples of schools actively trying to socialize their student body, beyond simply sticking them in a classroom and leaving it at that.
To summarize, schools have always functioned as more than simple centers of learning. They are the bridge from adolescence to adulthood, more than any other institution, and their role shouldn’t be underappreciated.
Choose the correct letter (a, b or c) – (1 point each)
Reading comprehension, test 2
Representation of the United States
The United States, a country located in the middle of North America, is well-known the world over. The usual problem, as with many countries with a vast popular culture, is when people who have never been to the countries depicted begin to assume that what they see in popular culture is reality. The truth, however, is usually somewhere else.
To begin, the United States is far more diverse than usually shown on film. A usual film will feature a cast of white people, and maybe a few characters from other races, too. About two-thirds of the population is White, not including Hispanics or Latinos, but the other one-third, which consists of minorities as a whole (Black people, Asians, Hispanics, etc.) does not correspond to what is shown in the theater.
Additionally, the problem of poverty is usually not addressed in film, if shown at all. More than 15% of the US population lives in poverty on a day-to-day basis, according to official figures, and that is usually ignored or underplayed in American popular culture. If accurately shown at all, it is usually in the form of a personable “rags-to-riches” (poor-to-rich) story, which, while true in some limited cases, is not very common in the real world. This also serves to gives false hope to those in poverty around the world and in the US.
Grade 10 Reading Comprehension Page 1
The last major exported inaccuracy is the depiction of religious life. The vast majority of Americans are religious, and this does not usually show up in major films.
It is easily understood that films do not exist to educate people. They exist to make money, for the most part, and one should not expect this to change any time soon. It is, however, unfortunate, when what most understand as being fiction is misconstrued as depicting reality.
Choose the correct letter (a, b or c) – (1 point each)
4. According to the text, the author most likely agree that films are:
Reading comprehension, test 3
Read the text below and choose the correct word (A, B, C or D) for each gap. - (1 point each)
School’s Art Sale
Last Friday parents helped collect (1) ……… of money for a school by buying children’s pictures. A primary school in Bicester use its classrooms as an art gallery for a day and (2) ………parents to come and look. All the pupils (3) ……… a work of art and (4) ……… painting went on sale at $5. Hundreds of parents and relations came and, together, they spend (5) ……… $2,000.
Now the school is (6) ……… of making the exhibition bigger next year by also contacting business (7) ……… operate in the local area. One of the schoolchildren’s parents first had the (8) ……… after going to (9) ……… exhibitions in her home country, South Africa.
The school has decided to (10) ……… the money to buy books and MP3 players. The Head Teacher said he was delighted to see the school (11) ……… full and he was very proud of the children.
1) | A many | B much | C several | D lots |
2) | A hoped | B invited | C pleased | D wished |
3) | A operated | B played | C performed | D produced |
4) | A few | B some | C each | D all |
5) | A over | B more | C close | D near |
6) | A planning | B thinking | С considering | D wanting |
7) | A what | B who | C which | D whose |
8) | A memory | B idea | C habit | D choice |
9) | A same | B likely | C similar | D equal |
10) | A use | B used to | С get used to | D used |
11) | A enough | B too | С such | D so |
Grade 10 Reading Comprehension Page 2
Reading comprehension, test 4
About Coming of Age
Coming of age is the transition from child to adult, boy to man, girl to woman. But when exactly that happens – and how you celebrate or action the change - may depend entirely on where in the world you live.
In the UK, depending on your point of view, people come of age when they reach 16, 18 or 21 years old. At 16 you can get married without parental consent in England and Scotland, but you have to wait until you are 18 before you are allowed to vote, drink alcohol, or buy cigarettes. Turning 21, in comparison, has few legal effects but may be even more strenuously celebrated.
In other cultures, the graduation into adulthood may not depend on age so much as on experience and development. Young Hamar boys of Ethiopia, for instance, becoming a man is marked when they can run four times over the backs of their cattle, while the boys of Brazil’s Xavante tribe come of age through a series of tasks including spending fifteen days immersed in water.
Only allowed to leave the water for the occasional sleep, the men-in-waiting are taken to the point of complete exhaustion under the watchful eyes and instruction of the village elders. Once their skin is sufficiently softened, the boys are then ritually scarred and their ears pierced with the bone of a jaguar. Having proved their stamina, they are finally painted with red dye as a sign of their transition to manhood.
Girls, too, have their initiation ceremonies, some more enjoyable than others. In many parts of Latin America, for instance, girls are thought to come of age when they turn fifteen and the occasion is often marked by a lavish party called a quinceañera. Further north, in the USA, wealthier families hold grand debutante balls at which parents present their daughters into high society.
Other female initiation ceremonies might not be quite so enjoyable. In parts of Brazil, Colombia and Peru, a Tikuna girl’s first period heralds a ceremony in which she is painted black, adorned with eagle feathers, and made to sing, dance, and jump over fires for up to four days – all without much sleep. This done, she is then placed in isolation for up to six months during which time she is taught about the history of her people and informed of her future responsibilities. For her, childhood is very much a thing of the past.
Put down + if the statement is true, - if it is false (1 point each).
1) Coming of age is the transition from child to adult.
2) In the UK people come of age when they reach the age of 18.
3) In England, adults can consume alcohol at the age of 21.
4) Hamar boys of Ethiopia and boys of Brazil’s Xavante tribe come of age based on experience and development.
5) Hamar boys of Ethiopia have their ears pierced by the bone of a jaguar.
6) A quinceañera is a party to celebrate when boys turn 15 in Latin America.
7) A debutante ball is held in the USA to present wealthy daughters into high society.
8) In parts of Brazil a girl comes of age beginning when she starts her first period.
9) Girls in Brazil are taught about the history of their people during 6 months of isolation.
10) Coming of age is celebrated differently depending on where you live in the world.
Grade 10 Reading Comprehension Page 3
GRADE 10
Writing Comprehension
(In this test you will select from two writing tasks. Choose the one that you feel you are most capable to write about.)