GRADE 11

Listening Comprehension

They are deemed to be among the most exquisite musical instruments ever made, and collectors have parted with millions just to have one to call their own.

But it appears that concert violinists cannot tell from the sound alone whether they are playing a 300-year-old Stradivarius or an instrument made last week. And, for playing quality alone, the virtuoso will opt for the modern one when asked which fiddle they would like to take home.

These discordant findings emerge from experiments by Claudia Fritz, a researcher at the University of Paris, at an international violin competition in Indianapolis in 2010.

She asked 21 musicians to play six different violins, three modern instruments and three by Italian maestros — one made by Guarneri del Gesu around 1740, and two made in Antonio Stradivari's workshop around 1700.

Fritz commandeered a large room, dimmed the lights and passed the violins in random order to the musicians, who had to wear welders' goggles and stand on the other side of a dividing curtain.

Each had time to play the six instruments and rank them according to their playability, projection, response and "tone colours", a measure of the quality of the sound.

Writing in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Fritz and her co-authors describe their findings as a "striking challenge to conventional wisdom".

The violinists mostly preferred new instruments, and overall they were least keen on one of the two Stradivarius. And, when each had chosen their favourite violin out of the six, they could not say whether it was old or new.

The researchers could find no link between the age and value of the violins and how they were rated by the violinists.

The three old instruments had a combined value of $10m, a hundred times that of the modern violins. "They are beautiful instruments, but the prices are insane," Fritz said. "The old versus new issue doesn't make any sense." "It doesn't matter if the violin's old or new, all that matters is whether it's a good violin or a bad violin. Many modern violin makers are doing a great job."

One shortcoming of the study was that the violinists were asked to rate a particular instrument's projection, how well its sound travels, themselves. Another was that only a few violins were tested.

Kai-Thomas Roth, secretary of the British Violin Making Association, said that double blind tests, where neither experimenter nor musician knows which violin is played, had already shown people cannot distinguish a modern violin from a priceless work of art.

"There's some myth-making that helps old instruments," Thomas said. "If you give someone a Stradivari and it doesn't work for them, they'll blame themselves and work hard at it until it works.

Give them a modern violin, and they'll dismiss the instrument straight away if it doesn't work for them. That's the psychology at work. Modern violins are easily as good, but even a good maker can make an instrument that doesn't work out." 

GRADE 11

Listening comprehension test

1. Put down + if the statement is true, - if it is false (2 points each)

1. Stradivarius violins are considered the best in the world and are worth hundreds of dollars.

2. The violinists involved in the study could not tell the difference between the sound of a Stradivarius violin and a modern violin.

3. Claudia Fritz believes that the beauty of a Stradivarius justifies its price.

4. Guarneri del Gesu and Antonio Stradivari were Spanish violin makers.

5. The study was conducted by Kai-Thomas Roth.

6. Overall, the violinists preferred newer models over the classic ones.

7. Of the six violins used in the study, three were modern and three were made in the 1700s.

8. Claudia Fritz thinks the quality of an instrument is more important than its age or reputation.

9. Fritz's study was the first to compare the sound of modern and antique violins.

10. Roth concluded that the difference between playing a Stradivarius and a modern violin is the musician's mindset toward the instrument.

2. Choose the correct letter (a, b, c or d) – (2 points each)

11. The purpose of the experiment was to discover...

A. if playing a Stradivarius affects the quality of a performance.

B. if playing a Stradivarius affects the audience differently.

C. if Stradivarius violins actually sound better than modern instruments.

12. Of the six violins tested how many were made by Antonio Stradivari?

A. Two.

B. Three.

C. Four.

13. The results of the study were surprising because...

A. Stradivarius violins are thought to be vastly superior to modern instruments.

B. string instruments sound better with age.

C. modern violins are usually considered to be better crafted.

14. The musicians were prevented from knowing which violin they were playing by..

A. wearing goggles and standing in a separate room.

B. wearing a blindfold and standing in a separate room.

C. wearing goggles and standing behind a curtain.

15. The best synonym for "commandeer" as it is used in the article is...

A. to command.

B. to control.

C. to appropriate.

16. Which of the following was noted as a shortcoming of the study?

A. Not all the violinists were qualified.

B. Only a few violins were tested.

C. Only half of the violins were made by Stradivari.

17. This study used the "double blind" testing method because...

A. neither the researcher nor the violinist knew what instrument was being played.

B. both the researcher and the violinist were blindfolded.

C. the test was done twice, once with blindfolds and once without.

18. Kai-Thomas Roth thinks that...

A. the myth of Antonio Stradivari is the main factor.

B. Stradivarius violins aren't worth their price.

C. people aren't educated enough to tell the difference.

19. The musicians participating in the study did NOT rate the violins for...

A. resonance.

B. playability.

C. craftsmanship.

20. Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu lived and worked in the...

A. 15th century.                                 B. 18th century.                                        C. 17th century.

GRADE 11

Reading Comprehension, test 1

The requirement for pasteurization—heating milk to at least 161 degrees Fahrenheit for fifteen seconds—neutralizes such deadly bacteria as Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, and salmonella. Between 1919, when only a third of the milk in Massachusetts was pasteurized, and 1939, when almost all of it was, the number of outbreaks of milk-borne disease fell by nearly 90 percent. Indeed, required pasteurization is part of a much broader security cordon set up in the past century to protect people from germs. Although milk has a special place on the watch list (it's not washable and comes out of apertures that sit just below the orifice of excretion), all foods are subject to scrutiny. The thing that makes our defense against raw milk so interesting, however, is the mounting evidence that these health measures also could be doing us great harm.  

Over the past fifty years, people in developed countries began showing up in doctors' offices with autoimmune disorders in far greater numbers. In many places, the rates of such conditions as multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, and Crohn's disease have doubled and even tripled. Almost half the people living in First World nations now suffer from allergies. It turns out that people who grow up on farms are much less likely to have these problems. Perhaps, scientists hypothesized, we've become too clean and aren't being exposed to the bacteria we need to prime our immune systems.  

        What we pour over our cereal has become the physical analogue of this larger ideological struggle over microbial security. The very thing that makes raw milk dangerous, its dirtiness, may make people healthier, and pasteurization could be cleansing beneficial bacteria from milk. The recent wave of raw-milk arrests comes at a time when new evidence is invigorating those who threaten to throw open our borders to bacterial incursion. Public-health officials are infuriated by the raw milkers' sheer wrongheadedness and inability to correctly interpret the facts, and the raw milkers feel the same way about them. Milk as it emerges from the teat, it seems, is both panacea and poison.

1. Put down + if the statement is true, - if it is false (1 point each).

1. In order for pasteurization to occur, the temperature of milk must reach a specific degree.
2. The introduction of pasteurization reduced the number of milk-borne diseases in Massachusetts.
3. Nowadays, we try to protect ourselves from germs in all foods, not just milk.
4. Pasteurized milk can cause Crohn’s disease.
5. More than half of the people living in Third World countries suffer from allergies.
6. People who grow up on farms tend to be healthier because they avoid the germs of cities.
7. Because pasteurization is the law, some people have been arrested for selling raw milk.
8. Scientists agree 100% that all milk should be pasteurized.
9. Scientists and individuals cannot agree on whether milk should be pasteurized or not.
10. The main idea of the text is that exposure to bacteria in small amounts may make people healthier.

Reading Comprehension, test 2

Read the text below and choose the correct word (A, B, C or D) for each gap. - (1 point each)

Airport Delays

Although the plane is the fastest means of transport, the idea of travelling by plane does not (1)______ to every one because of the frequent delays. It is extremely frustrating when you (2)______ yourself plenty of time to get to the airport and - once there - it is brought to your (3)________ that there is a problem with your flight. The staff at the check-in are trying to (4 )_______ you that it won't be long before the problem is solved. Yet, hours later you feel let (5)_______ , as you (6)________ to wait patiently for your boarding call. Of course, you won't (7)______ anything by complaining.

By this stage, you realise you are going to miss your connecting flight and now you must change your bookings. You feel (8) ______you're never going to get to your destination. However, there is the slight chance that you could be one of the lucky ones spending the night at a top class hotel at the expense of the airline that caused your problem in the first place. Admittedly, you would rather (9)_______ heading for your original destination. Regular (10)_______ advise us just to accept the fact that no matter how frustrating this situation might be, it's unavoidable and shouldn’t (11)_______ us that much. Nevertheless, it will always be a (12)______  sight to see people eagerly waiting, in the hope of hearing their flight announced. 

Reading Comprehension, test 3

A Surprise Race Winner

        When sixty-one-year-old farmer Cliff Young showed up to run a 543.7-mile (875 kilometer) race in 1983, no one took him seriously. The race goes from Sydney to Melbourne in Australia, between two of the country’s largest shopping malls, and takes about five to seven days to complete. The typical runners in this intense race are elite athletes who rank high among the nation’s athletes. Most of the runners are younger than thirty and have special training. Cliff Young was an exception when he showed         up to run in rubber boots and long pants, with no special training. People were very surprised when Young said he was going to compete because, at first glance, the farmer didn’t even seem likely to finish.

        However, Young felt that he had the capacity to complete the race. When people questioned him, he explained that he had         grown up on a large sheep farm. His family had 2,000 sheep on 2,000 acres of land. His parents were too poor to afford horses or trucks to round up the sheep, so when         storms came, Young had to bring all the sheep back to the barn on foot. He said that         sometimes he ran with the sheep for two or three days, so he didn’t think two more days         of running would be too much for him. His reasoning was that the rigorous work on his family’s sheep farm would help him finish the race, even though he didn’t have specialized training.

        Initially, the elite athletes had an        enormous lead over Young. In contrast to the long strides of the other runners, he ran in an unusual shuffle. He moved slowly and didn’t pick up his feet. Some people were even worried about his safety. But he kept running.

        The other athletes planned for time to sleep; they would run for eighteen hours and         sleep for six hours. Apparently, Young didn’t know about this. He just continued to run through the night. When asked about his tactic for finishing, he said that he had never         planned to sleep at all during the race.

        The extra time gradually gave Young an        edge over the other runners. The change wasn’t dramatic, but every night, he moved a little closer to the world-class runners. On         the last night, he passed them all, and by the next day, he was way ahead of all the other         runners. He ended up winning the race,   finishing the race in five days, fifteen hours, and four minutes, and breaking the race         record by nine hours. Young said that during the race he imagined he was chasing sheep         and trying to outrun a storm. Clearly, as     Young claimed, his work on the sheep farm         helped him and played a role in his win.

        Young was awarded the first prize of $10,000, but he hadn’t even known there         was a prize, and he insisted that he hadn’t competed in the race for any kind of reward.          He ended up giving the money to other runners in the race. The Australian public         loved this, and he became a national hero.

        He returned the following year to compete in the race again. Despite some         injuries, he got the seventh place in the race. He received the award for being the most         courageous runner in the race. The prize was a new car, but Young claimed that another runner deserved the prize more and he gave         the keys to that person. The story is that Young never kept a prize from any of         the races he competed in. He always gave it all away. Young continued to run for the rest of         his life. He died in 2003 at the age of eighty-one.

Choose the correct letter (a, b or c) – (1 point each)

GRADE 11

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.)

1. Which do you think is more important: to be disciplined and a hard worker, or to be creative? What are the good  and bad things about being creative? What are the good and bad things about being disciplined? Tell about a time you used creativity or discipline to solve a problem.

2. Some people are worried about chemicals in food. What do you think about this problem? Why?