EXERCISES FOR GRADE 11 STUDENTS

UNIT 4: THE MASS MEDIA

I. Choose A, B, C or D that best fits each blank in the sentences
1. I knew my mother would ______ a face the minute she saw my new haircut.
A. drag B. lift C. pull D. race
2. When she started borrowing my clothes without asking, I had to put my ______ down.
A. stamp B. show C. fish D. foot
3. If you are going to town, keep your eyes ______ for that book I was telling you about.
A. peeled B. clean C. wide D. fresh
4. He was a tall, intimidating person, with a firm tone of voice and a very short ______.
A. fuse B. line C. patience D. temperament
5. Peter was ______ of revealing the company‘s future plans to the reporter.
A. circumspect B. wary C. prudent D. cautious
6. I'd just met his parents for the first time so I was on my best ______.
A. manners B. conduct C. behaviour D. demeanour
7. As his whole family were doctors, it was in his ______ to take up that profession
A. blood B. spirit C. soul D. heart
8. Though we'd all been close on the school trip, we parted ______ with one another once we were back home.
A. views B. friendship C. company D. opinions
9. It pays to be above ______ in your dealings with the Inland Revenue.
A. board B. timber C. plank D. panel
10. Excuse me if I'm speaking out of ______, but what you are proposing is quite wrong.
A. mind B. line C. turn D. order
11. Dr. Johnson managed to ensure that the scientists in his research team were the ______ of the crop.
A. top B. catch C. cream D. blend
12. Larry displayed the courage of his ______ by saying no to his supervisor.
A. convictions B. certainties C. principles D. opinions
13. At 69 he is as firmly in the ______ seat of the company as ever.
A. front B. driving C. leading D. foremost
14. Now, 10 days since the hurricane made landfall, residents are struggling to pick up the ______.
A. bits B. parts C. pieces D. slices
15. I believe he really does want to work for us, but he‘s playing hard to ______ so that we offer more money.
A. catch B. get C. grab D. give
16. Some people try to ______ the myth that women are weak.
A. maintain B. preserve C. perpetuate D. disseminate
17. It‘s a ______ for decent jobs these days, so you need every qualification you can get.
A. scramble B. jumble C. jostle D. flurry
18. It‘s been a ______ winter this year, with temperatures as low as -15°
A. fervent B. sharp C. bitter D. fetid
19. Keith is a ______ of knowledge when it comes to computers.
A. stream B. fountain C. pool D. spring
20. It‘s a modern city, full of ______ tower blocks
A. rising B. heaving C. ascending D. soaring
21. A narrow path winds its ______ down from the mountain.
A. course B. route C. way D. direction
22. Try to ______ count of how many calories you eat over a week.
A. have B. make C. keep D. hold
23. There's still a ______ bit of work to be done on the house.
A. decent B. fair C. big D. large
24. The extra payments are a ______for most single mothers.
A. lifeline B. lifeguard C. lifeboat D. lifebelt
25. I arrived early for the meeting so I was twiddling my ______for half an hour.
A. fingers B. toes C. hands D. thumbs
26. The film's only ______ grace is the excellent cinematography.
A. winning B. rescuing C. saving D. giving
27. A full-sized tripod is far too ______ to carry around. I find this pocket – sized one is much handier.
A. overweight B. inept C. unwieldy D. outsize
28. Many diseases that used to be considered ______ of mankind are now easily treatable with antibiotics
A. scourges B. tortures C. blights D. thorns
29. She knows she needs exercise, but finds going to the gym a ______.
A. job B. toil C. work D. chore
30. The special effects were quite good, but that‘s more than could be ______ for the acting.
A. mentioned B. spoken C. said D. told
31. There are some safety ______ in connection with the new building that still need to be addressed.
A. worries B. cares C. troubles D. corners
32. After the earthquake, the entrance hall was turned into a ______ casualty ward.
A. mainstay B. makeshift C. piecework D. wayside
33. Tears ______ up out of the baby's eyes.
A. raised B. mounted C. welled D. filled
34. She went under ______ as a waiter to write an article on tipping.
A. mask B. act C. pose D. cover
35. There is a new ______ to our family. My mother has just given birth to a baby.
A. growth B. admission C. topping D. addition
36. I don‘t want to burden my daughter with my problems; she‘s got too much ______.
A. up her sleeve B. in her mind C. in effect D. on her plate
37. We live in a ______ society where shopping is all-important.
A. customer B. consumer C. consumption D. civil
a consumer society: xã hội tiêu dùng
38. That human rights are ______ is unacceptable in a civilized society.
A. infringed B. impeached C. abrogated D. quashed
39. He set one alarm-clock for five o‘clock and the other for five past so as to ______ that he did not oversleep.
A. assure B. ensure C. insure D. reassure
40. Improving the overall environmental quality is a long-term battle in which we do want the participation of everyone
in society in order to ______ results.
A. realize B. reap C. bear D. generate
41. While backpacking in a quiet, traditional region, I came across the seemingly ______ fast food ads typical of my
hometown.
A. invasive B. infuriating C. irritating D. ubiquitous
42. I dislike him so much that I find it difficult even to be ______ to him.
A. civil B. tactful C. diplomatic D. well-mannered
43. Leili said she found learning languages as easy as ______. She had a gift for it.
A. sliding off a branch B. falling off a log C. diving off a climb D. branching off a bough
44. You are going to need her help. If I were you, I‘d ______ a bit. I‘d try to get her on my side, you know what I mean.
A. soap her down B. oil her over C. butter her up D. grease her out
45. That woman sees nothing ______ in letting her children run around as they wish.
A. awry B. amiss C. afraid D. alike
46. It looks like she‘s really ______ with her successful new business.
A. closing a deal B. moving on up C. breaking it even D. raking it in
47. There is a great deal of pressure in the newspaper industry; editor might work a 12-hour day with no ______.
A. come-down B. letdown C. crackdown D. let-up
48. It was Alice‘s year: a new home, a better job - everything just clicked into ______.
A. spot B. position C. place D. space
49. The professor‘s ______ theory is that singing preceded speech.
A. fancied B. fond C. pet D. prefer
50. It took me several seconds to grasp the meaning of her statement but finally the ______ dropped.
A. penny B. axe C. hammer D. stone
II. Give the correct forms of provided words to complete the passage
1. The full costume is only worn on important _____________ occasions. (ceremony)
2. Utilitarian notions in the social sciences are not enough for even providing a(n) ______________ framework for
grasping what actually happens. (concept)
3. It once seemed _______________ to everyone that men should travel to the moon. (conceive)
4. The procedure is in strict _____________ with standard international practices.(conform)
5. The present economic policy is a(n) ________________ of the earlier one. (continue)
6. An historical awareness also imparts a sense of________________(continue).
7. Last month's elections saw a ____________ in power of the country's socialist party. (continue)
8. It's very ______________ to find out that your own team members have been lying to you. (courage)
9. Do you believe in the _________________ powers of the local mineral water? (cure)
10. She has an artist's _________________ eye. (discriminate)
11. The government enacted laws to protect women from __________________ employment practices (discriminate)
12. Maria loved both the children. There was never a hint of ______________ (favour)
13. They often are involved in the hiring and dismissal of employees but generally have no role in the
______________ of personnel policy. (form)
14. An agreement on the _______________ of a new government was reached on June 6. (form)
15. The discussions reached a new level of _____________ and by lunchtime the exchanges were becoming very
heated. (intense)
16. ________________ and specialization in agriculture, especially in the vineyards, gave rise to commercial
exchange and opportunity for profit and saving. (intense)
17. Areas near the frontier were rough and ________________ in the old days. (law)
18. It is _________________ for a teacher to inflict corporal punishment on pupils. (law)
19. The relation of politics and economy is a ______________ of historical gradual progress. (master)
III. Choose A, B, C or D that best fits each blank in the passage
HOLLYWOOD
Image is paramount in Hollywood. You drive a car that (1) ___ of money, you wear clothes that scream success. You
eat, if you can possibly wangle your way in, at the currently hip restaurants and hope that you don‘t have to make an
embarrassing (2) ___ in order to be seated at the right table. Even then you can‘t really relax because you can‘t eat
what you want. Hungry? Forget it! Eating lots in LA isn‘t cool. You pick at delicate, fashionable food, (3) ___ juice and
mineral water. Smoke at your (4) ___. It‘s stressful, it‘s tacky, and thousands of starry-eyed hopefuls (5) ___ off buses
coming in from all over the States, just to be a part of it. The glamour, the money, the sunshine, the celebrities — most
people‘s (6) ___ of the American dream.
1. A. remarks B. suggests C. speaks D. tells
2. A. disturbance B. scene C. drama D. performance
3. A. dribble B. quench C. sip D. dab
4. A. risk B. peril C. harm D. danger
5. A. pack B. clear C. speed D. pour
6. A. belief B. thought C. idea D. sense

NO BREAKS ON SKY
Sky offers three dedicated movie channels with a choice of over 450 movies to watch each month. Once you (1) ___
down to watch a film there are no interruptions from (2) ___ breaks during the films on any of the three movie channels
- and subtitles are available for most movie premieres. Films are also (3) ___ at different times during the week, so you
can (4) ___ one at a time to suit you. It also means you can continue to watch a film at a later date should you not (5)
___ to have enough time to see the whole film at one sitting (or you (6) ___ off!)
1. A drop B settle C ease D slide
2. A sponsored B marketing C commercial D advertised
3. A replayed B reviewed C rescheduled D repeated
4. A make B catch C attend D join
5. A happen B succeed C enable D occur
6. A nod B fall C slip D go

LIVE AID
It was the Live Aid concert that began the fashion for (1) ___ in famous names to deal with world catastrophes. With
thousands of people dying of hunger in Ethiopia, the Irish pop singer Bob Geldof (2) ___ the problem by staging a
worldwide satellite-linked all-star concert to raise money. His message was admirably (3) ___ of the usual
showbusiness hollowness. ‗Give us your money‘ he said, sometimes varying the message to ‗Give us your money
now.' Though some cynics in the pop press tried to suggest that Geldof had organised the event to revitalise his (4)
___ career, there could be no serious doubt that his motives were genuine. Geldof himself was uneasily aware of such
jibes but most of his fellow stars, like most of the audience, (5) ___ in this exciting new development by which fame (6)
___ tribute to the real world of suffering.
1. A taking B talking C moving D calling
2. A confronted B conflicted C contested D contended
3. A lacking B astray C blank D devoid
4. A falling B fainting C forestalling D flagging
5. A glamourised B revelled C savoured D relished
6. A put B passed C paid D posed
 AUSTRALIAN CINEMA
Thirty years ago, the New Australian cinema (1) ___ the attention of the world with heroic stories set in the late-
nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. They were tales of the formation of a national identity, of the recent European
settlers‘ transactions with their strange new world and its frighteningly mystical inhabitants. When this vein was (2) ___
local film makers left home or turned to the problematic present of people living lives of noisy desperation in the (3) ___
suburbs of the big coastal cities, home to most Australians. As television series, these cosy, unheroic stories (4) ___
worldwide popularity, but relatively few films of this sort have found success elsewhere, except for a small handful,
among which are these, (5) ___ accomplished and calculatedly theatrical films. They are loving assemblages of
conventions and clichés from musicals of the past, produced I with an exuberance that (6) ___ the audience up in
uncritical enjoyment.
1. A. appropriated B. captured C. annexed D. mastered
2. A. exhausted B. drained C. emptied D. squandered
3. A. lounging B. stooping C. stretching D. sprawling
4. A. reached B. achieved C. fulfilled D. managed
5. A. deeply B. heavily C. highly D. widely
6. A. sweeps B. lifts C. brushes D. carries

An interview with a journalist

She was dressed in a rather plain cotton blouse and ankle- length skirt, as well as the kind of (1) ____ walking shoes
you would expect a woman twice her age to wear. She was cheerful and relaxed, reflective at times and alert at others,
and so entirely unobsessed with herself and curious about the world that sometimes it seemed as if she were
interviewing me – qualities that obviously (2) ____ her well in her profession.
"I get a (3) ____ of excitement from being somewhere different," she says. "In a sense, it is that odd feeling of (4) ____
something that I have never encountered before. I am passionate about putting myself in new situations. To me,
inquisitiveness is part and (5) ____ of journalism. My profession allows me to both satisfy my own curiosity about the
world and also to (6) ____ some measure of international understanding."
1. A. sensible B. mundane C. logical D. sensitive
2. A. provide B. attend C. service D. serve
3. A. hurry B. pace C. note D. rush
4. A. facing up to B. falling back on C. lashing out at D. living up to
5. A. packet B. parcel C. piece D. package
6. A. prolong B. advertise C. promote D. elevate

Citizen Kane
When the film Citizen Kane finally appeared in 1941, despite the brouhaha that attended its (1) .... - delayed because
of distributors' fears of the harm William Randolph Hearst, its (2) .... subject, might do to them - and largely ecstatic
reviews, it was not a commercial success. It was television that brought it back to the public consciousness. It is
perhaps the one film, above all others, that has inspired people to become film-makers. This is all the more astonishing
since it was Orson Welles's first film. Welles always (3) .... that its success arose from his having no idea of what he
was or wasn't allowed to do: he just went ahead and did it. But he had an extraordinary team at his (4) … cameraman
Gregg Toland, screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, and the special-effects wizard Linwood Dunn. When Welles and
Mankiewicz (5) .... on the idea of portraying a newspaper magnate who both was and wasn't Hearst, Welles realised
that he had found a perfect vehicle for himself both as director and actor, and (6) .... his chance with the energy of a
whirlwind.
1. A issue B release C publication D broadcast
2. A attested B admitted C alleged D affirmed
3. A maintained B upheld C detailed D specified
4. A disposal B invitation C hand D option
5. A latched B jumped C caught D hit
6. A gripped B plucked C seized D wrenched
IV. Fill in each blank with a suitable word to complete the passage
Writer
Newspaper reports of publishers in bidding (1) _____ over whizz-kid manuscripts have resulted in a skewed idea of
what life is (2) _____ for your average novelist. Down at my end of the business - i.e. not exactly topping the best-
seller lists - there are two ways of making ends meet. The wisest among us write in the evenings and have (3) _____
full-time jobs that will still be there even if the book doesn‘t immediately get snapped (4) _____ and turned into a film.
(5) _____ such as myself, however, are literary odd-jobbers, subsist on a (6) _____ of teaching, the occasional
workshop and articles like this. I have (7) _____ tell of an in-house writing opportunity offered by a chocolate factory,
but I‘ve never managed to get anything like that. Somehow, though, by (8) _____ of juggling part-time jobs and credit
cards and also, more (9) _____ than not, thanks to the generosity of those names you find in Acknowledgements, the
novel gets written.

Advertising Shifts Focus

The average citizen is bombarded with TV commercials, posters and newspaper advertisements (1) ___________ he
goes. Not only this, but promotional material is constantly (2) _____ view, with every available public space from shop
to petrol station covered with advertising of some (3) _________. People who are foolish enough to drive (4) ________
their windows open are likely to have leaflets advertising everything and anything thrust in at them. The amount of
advertising to (5) ________ we are exposed is phenomenal, (6) ______ advertisers are being hurt by their industry‘s
worst recession in a decade and a conviction that is in many respects more frightening than the booms and busts of
capitalism: the belief that advertising can go (7) _______ further. (8) ___________ the ingenuity of the advertisers,
who, in their need to make their advertisements as visually attractive as possible, often totally obscure the message,
the consumer has become increasingly cynical and simply blanks (9) _______ all but the subtlest messages. The
advertising industry has therefore (10) __________ to a more vulnerable target: the young.
The messages specifically aimed at children are for toys and games – (11) _________ promotional budgets increased
fivefold in the 1990s - and fast food, which dominates the children‘s advertising market. However, the main thrust of
advertising in this area is no longer towards traditional children‘s products. Advertisers acknowledge that the
commercial pressures of the 1990s had an extraordinary (12) _________ on childhood: it is now generally believed
that the cut-off point for buying toys has been falling by one year every five years. Research suggests that while not
(13) _______ many years ago children were happy with Lego or similar construction games at ten or eleven, most of
today‘s children abandon them at six or seven. (14) _______ effect, the result is the premature ageing of children.
There is (15) ____________ where the advertising industry‘s latest preoccupation with the young is so evident as in
schools. Increasingly low budgets have left schools vulnerable to corporate funding and sponsorship schemes in order
to provide much needed equipment, such as computers, or to enable them to run literacy schemes. While on the (16)
_________ of it this would seem to be a purely philanthropic gesture on the (17) ________ of the companies
concerned, the other side of the coin is a pervasive commercial presence in the classroom, where textbooks and
resource books are increasingly likely to bear (18) ______ company logo.
V. Read the text and choose A, B, C or D to answer the questions below it
UNDERCOVER JOURNALISM
Journalism is too small or too distant a word to cover it. It is theatre; there are no second takes. It is drama - it is
improvisation, infiltration and psychological warfare. It can be destructive in itself before any print has seen the light of
day. It is exhilarating, dangerous and stressful. It is the greatest job. It is my job.
I am an undercover reporter. For the past year or so, I have been a football hooligan, a care worker, a bodyguard and
a fashion photographer. It is a strange life and a difficult one. In the course of a day, I have assumed four different
personalities, worn four different wardrobes and spoken four different street dialects, and a left a little bit of me behind
in each of those worlds. More important than this, though, are the experiences and emotions I‘ve taken away with me.
It‘s hard to put a label on them. They have seeped in and floated out of my psyche, but somewhere in the backyard of
my mind the footprints of this strange work are left behind.
I have as yet no real notion as to what, if any, long term impact they will have. For the moment, I relish the shooting
gallery of challenges that this madness has offered me. In the midst of all these acting roles and journalistic
expeditions, I have endeavoured not to sacrifice too much of my real self. I have not gone native and I am still sane. At
least for the moment.
In the course of any one investigation, you reveal yourself in conversation and etiquette, mannerism and delivery - of
thousands of gesticulations and millions of words - and cover yourself with the embroidery of many different disguises.
If one stitch is loose or one word misplaced, then everything could crash, and perhaps violently so.
Certainly, as a covert operator, the journalistic safe line is a difficult one to call. Every word you utter is precious, every
phrase, insinuation and gesture has to be measured and considered in legal and ethical terms. Even the cadence of
your voice has to be set to appropriate rhythms according to the assumed role, the landscape and the terrain of your
undercover patch.
The golden rule is this: as an undercover reporter you must never be the catalyst for events that would not otherwise
have occurred, had you not been there. The strict guidelines within broadcasting organisations about covert filming
mean that, every time I go into the
field, a BBC committee or compliance officer has to grant permission first. It‘s a strange but necessary experience for
someone like me, who operates on instinct and intuition, but it‘s a marriage that works well.
The undercover reporter is a strange breed. There is no blueprint that exists. It is your own journalistic ethos and within
those parameters you try to tread a safe line, both in terms of your journalism and personal safekeeping. And of
course, there‘s a high price you pay for this kind of work, home is now a BBC safe house. The only visitors to my
bunker are work colleagues. It‘s not a pleasant lifestyle, but I have taken on all the stories in the full knowledge of the
risks involved.
Though I embarked upon my journey with enthusiasm and determination, the climate in which we undertake this
journalistic and documentary mission is an increasingly hostile one. It is one in which covert filming has come under
scrutiny because of concerns about fakery and deception and the featuring of hoax witnesses. Issues concerning
privacy, the use of covert filming techniques across the media - from current affairs to the tabloid newspapers - and the
way journalists work with these tools have been rigorously appraised. I personally welcome this scrutiny.
Hi-tech surveillance equipment allows me to tell the story as it unfolds, surrounded by its own props, revealing its own
scars and naked sinews, and delivered in its own dialect. There is no distortion and only one editorial prism - mine.
While the sophisticated technology allows a visual and aural presentation of events, mentally I rely on the traditional
method of jotting things down to rationalise my thoughts and gain a coherent picture of all that I was involved in. This is
my delivery system - how I narrate.
Inevitably the spotlight has shone on me but those who have worked on either paper trail investigations in newspapers
or in television will know that it will fade. I am happy to return to the career of a desk journalist because I recognise that
the tools we have used are tools of last resort. I‘ll be returning to the more usual journalistic methods: telephone and
computer notebook rather than secret cameras and hidden microphones. But the aim will be the same: to shed light
into the darker corners of society where the vulnerable are most at risk.
1. The writer implies that what distinguishes his work from that of regular journalists is
A the insight into language required. B the degree of spontaneity it involves.
C the range of subjects it touches on. D the harm subsequent stories can cause.
2. With regard to his life as an undercover reporter, the writer feels that
A as a person he has changed in some way.
B the real effects on his personality will never be clear.
C to continue working in this way would make him unstable.
D he has not lost his appetite for the work.
3. Once they go undercover, investigators have to be careful not to
A compromise the validity of a story by their actions.
B deviate from a strictly agreed plan.
C show too much concern for the details of their appearance.
D change voice patterns for the purposes of recording.
4. The writer suggests that undercover investigators
A tend to be a similar type of person.
B operate according to a similar code of conduct.
C have to live with the consequences of exposing themselves.
D resent having to stick to rules laid down by employers.
5. The writer’s view of his work has changed because
A his own standards of reporting are now different.
B he finds it difficult to work from his new home.
C the new demand that journalists are accountable is tiresome.
D there is now a greater need to justify such journalistic practices.
6. In the writer’s view good documentaries involve
A close teamwork in the selection of material to be included.
B allowing recorded material to speak for itself.
C less rigorous editing than they used to.
D the journalist‘s ability in writing a script.
7. According to the text, the writer sees his basic mission as a journalist as
A defending the methods of undercover reporting.
B protecting the weak from being exploited.
C exposing the famous and powerful for what they are.
D keeping the identity of his informants confidential.
VI. You are going to read an article about the work of a TV animator. Seven paragraphs have been removed
from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap.
An animated life
Adam Farish works in stop-motion animation - the technique of making TV cartoons by manipulating static models
rather than using drawings or computers. It might sound a bit childish, but it isn‘t all child‘s play. ‗I tell people what I do,
and they go, ―You can‘t do that, Get a proper job!‖‗ A sheepish grin spreads across the face of Adam Farish, 36, who
spends eight hours a day playing with dolls. ‗It makes me laugh,‘ he shrugs. And, on cue, he laughs. It‘s an explosive,
wheezy laugh, a brief eruption of permanently suppressed amusement. Even after three years as an animator, it
seems as if he still can‘t believe his luck.
(1) ____
His company‘s big project at the moment is the new Rupert Bear series, Follow the Magic. Consequently, Farish has
spent many months absorbed in Rupert‘s surreal existence. 'It is acting, but you‘re not using your own body to act
with,‘ he explains. ‗We come In and we have to pretend we‘re five-year-old toy bears rescuing elephants out of trees. It
does something to your head after a while.‘
(2) ____
This great mountain of work must all be performed to a minute level of detail, and with complete accuracy. If a
character makes a large gesture, for instance, there must always be a slight recoil in the limb before they do it. This
must be posed and photographed. Blinking, which a character must do all the time if it is to seem human, involves
replacing an open eyelid with a half-closed eyelid and taking a picture, then replacing this with a three-quarter-closed
eyelid and taking a picture, then switching to a fully dosed one and taking a picture, then putting on the three-quarter
one again ...
(3) ____
When you factor in all the work done by others in building and lighting the sets correctly and providing each character
with their props and costumes, it is easy to see why stop-motion animation has a reputation for being, well, slow.
‗We‘ve got a target of 13 seconds a day. Most other companies do three or four, but because we‘re doing series work
and there‘s tight deadlines, we have to push it to 13 seconds -that is 325 frames in other words. It‘s quite strange,‘ he
muses, ‗because it's so ... ,‘ he searches for the right word, ‗dull.‘
(4) ____
So, as far as anyone can tell, the knack of getting it right is handed out at birth, and not to many people. Yet despite
the rareness of the skill, the animator‘s job is seldom secure. Most work on short-term contracts (Farish‘s runs out in
May), and, as with so many labour-intensive industries, other countries are taking an ever-increasing share of the
business.
(5) ____
Farish grew up in Aldershot, an army town, with a father who believed firmly in discipline. This belief engendered the
opposite in his son, who, despite being bright, barely attended school and managed to leave with a bad report and an
attitude problem. ‗I was a bit mouthy,‘ he says, ‗generally my own fault.‘
(6) ____
He survived on what work he could find, moving on from town to town once he‘d outstayed his welcome. ‗At times, I
loved it,‘ he admits, ‗that total freedom from responsibility. And then it starts getting a bit cold, and you think: ―Help!
How am I going to eat?‘‖
(7) ____
Now Farish makes £30,000 a year, at least until May, and has never been happier. Despite the insecurity, the
boredom, and having to explain what he does all the time, he says he loves his job - especially when the dolls get
something exciting to do.

A. Because he‘s known worse, these threats to his livelihood bother Farish less than most. For six years he was
homeless, on and off, and even food was not guaranteed. I‘ve already hit the lowest you can go,‘ he says.
B. But even this isn‘t the most laborious process. That honour goes to speech, as every lip and tongue movement for
every sound has to be posed and photographed, and the result must synchronise perfectly with the recorded
soundtrack. The character may be pointing and simultaneously doing a little dance. Writers, on the whole, are blithely
unaware of the nightmare such actions will bring for the poor wretch who translates their imaginations into reality.
C. Small, stocky and shaven-headed, Farish does not immediately make one think of children‘s television. He works in
Manchester for Cosgrove Hall, a famous old animation shop responsible for classics such as Danger Mouse and
Count Duckula. The building is a warren of black baize curtains, separating a series of untidy studios. The atmosphere
is one of chaos held precariously at bay.
D. Towards the end of even the longest day, however, comes the moment that animators live for: pressing ‗play‘, ‗it‘s a
dead object,‘ says Farish, ‗and then all of a sudden it‘s moving around and talking, and jumping about.‘ It‘s as if he is
describing some kind of magic spell. ‗You can‘t see until you‘ve done it, so it‘s all got to be in your head until you‘re
finished, and when you press play - that‘s when you find out if it all works or not.‘
E. Having started as a plumber‘s apprentice in the early 1990s, he found himself without qualifications, and then
suddenly without a job when economic recession hit. ‗People stopped paying each other, and I was bottom of the
chain.‘ He was left with just a sleeping-bag, a penknife and a change of clothes to depend on.
F. In fact, Farish‘s dedication knows no bounds. He even creates short cartoons in his spare time for his own
amusement. Stop-motion is too complex and expensive to do at home, so he is teaching himself computer-generated
animation. 'It started off as a bit of light relief but it's gradually taking over home life as well.‘
G. But then, after a period studying production management at drama school, Farish enrolled on a web-design course.
One day they had an animation lesson, and out of 20 students, Farish was the only one who could do it. On his
teacher's recommendation, he gave up web design and took a degree in animation. ‗I never chose to be an animator,‘
he says, ‗It never occurred to me that you could do this for a job.‘
H. That would not, of course, be the reaction of a child, but while a child might put a more positive spin on this, no child
could muster the prodigious levels of discipline and concentration required to see the job through. All the cartoons are
filmed with stop-motion animation so Farish spends his days breaking down the behaviour of his characters into
thousands of tiny steps, posing the puppets into each position, and taking a picture of the scene to make a frame of
film.
VII. You are going to read extracts from a travel writer's journal. For questions, choose from the sections (A-
E). The extracts may be chosen more than once.
According to the reviewer, which book...
1... represents the writer's first offering in a change of genre?
2... is written by a first-time author?
3... hints at the writer's future potential?
4... lacks passion and feeling despite being well-written?
5... is likely to be the writer's last offering?
6... ought to prompt a change of direction for the author to a more familiar style of.writing?.
7... will not be a commercial success?
8... received near universal praise?
9... was authored by a victim of unjust criticism?
10... rewards a patient reader?
A. Jonas by Amanda Budding
The story begins at a slothful pace, with character development verging on the tediously meticulous - I think I know
more about the main character, Jonas, than I do my own brother! - and yet all this effort doesn‘t promote engagement;
I never felt invested in Jonas‘ story, so it was all somewhat in vain. However note the caveat, for all is not lost and this
becomes a quite engrossing read if you can tolerate it long enough; and it moves so tangentially midway that it is
barely recognisable as the story from the opening pages. Jonas, despite the author‘s best efforts to the contrary,
becomes a figure of almost peripheral interest. It is his love interest, Stella, who tugs at the heartstrings and whose
enigmatic character piques the reader's interest, despite being wholly underdeveloped. You sense there is something
of the author herself here in Stella, and perhaps this authenticity, so lacking in our supposed protagonist, is what
makes all the difference. Jonas just feels too contrived. That said, once it enters the realms of the
semiautobiographical. I Jonas becomes a surprisingly worthwhile read, and herein lies the evidence to suggest that
writer. Amanda Budding, though she most certainly will not win rookie of the year for this outing, may in her future
offerings, develop into quite a virtuoso of the crime genre. Time will tell.
B. Adelaide Highs by Lee Kim
Lee Kim has always been one to throw a curveball. ever since his days as a plucky young novice wowing critics with
the outstanding and daring crime series Agenda, so we had come to expect the unexpected from this author. Even so,
no one thought a move into the romance genre was on the radar, given the incredibly graphic and at times gag-
inducing nature of his past work. Decried in the main by critics and fans alike as career suicide pure and simple,
although I, too, was sceptical of this new direction. I wanted to reserve judgement. However, if the proof is in the
pudding, then Adelaide Highs could have done with several more hours in the oven, for everything about it, from the
plot to the characters, is undercooked. Don't get me wrong, it is not woeful, just rather unremarkable. As a work of
fiction, structurally, it is sound, but it is also incredibly wooden. Luckily for Kim, news of the release caused such a stir
that the commercial success of this first offering is assured. However, readers are unlikely to give him the benefit of the
doubt if he goes down this route again, so I think he would be very ill-advised to take comfort from the buoyant sales
figures, despite the near universal critical panning the book received. If he is wise, his next offering will have an entirely
different Agenda - pardon the pun!
C. Oracle Saturn by Hillary Evans
Hillary Evans will not be forgiven for her latest crime against the sci-fi genre. Oracle Saturn. It is hard to fathom how
such a promising career could have, well, careered quite so chaotically off course. After all, this once prodigious talent
has never strayed from the type of literature that heralded her initial success. The signs were ominous after Neptune
Rising, but then her subsequent and second-to-last offering. Mars Base, gave some cause for optimism Alas. Oracle
Saturn will prove the straw that breaks the camel‘s - or more specifically, the reader‘s - back. Tellingly, pre-orders were
non-existent as critics went on the warpath and tore this shoddy offering completely to shreds. Readers are normally
disinclined to pay much heed to criticism of their favourite authors; however, there‘s no escaping the veracity of the
claims here and the critical wrath unleashed upon Evans is, sadly, more than justified, which her fanbase has
grudgingly acknowledged at last. They, like this and the overwhelming majority of reviewers have, finally, given up the
ghost. The road to redemption shuts with this flop.
D. Keyhole Surgery by James Beckford
James Beckford‘s peers, oddly, were swifter even than the critics in dismissing his literary success on a commercial
level. Hell hath no wrath like the green-eyed monster, after all. His name had opened doors that would otherwise not
even have shifted ajar, it was claimed. Beckford. however, is nothing if not resolute, and his unswerving faith in his
ability, allied to his desire to silence the naysayers once and for all led him down an unusual path. Keyhole Surgery
was written under the pseudonym Eileen Gloss. It is in this reviewer‘s opinion, the perfect riposte to those accusations
of favouritism he has long suffered, for critics and writers alike have been unanimous in their praise of this ‗first-time‘
author's work, with many going so far as to declare it a modern literary masterpiece of the romance genre. Ironically, it
looks set to be his least successful outing in bookshops, however, even post the big reveal surrounding the authorship
of the work. Doubtless, though, James will lose little sleep over its modest commercial performance on account of
having finally got a far bigger monkey off his back. Keyhole Surgery is, deservedly, my read of the week. Well done,
James Beckford! Consistently delivering in this genre since day one.
VIII. Read the text and complete the tasks below it
READING THE SCREEN
Are the electronic media exacerbating illiteracy and making our children stupid? On the contrary, says Colin McCabe,
they have the potential to make us truly literate.
The debate surrounding literacy is one of the most charged in education. On the one hand, there is an army of people
convinced that traditional skills of reading and writing are declining. On the other, a host of progressives protest that
literacy is much more complicated than a simple technical mastery of reading and writing. This second position is
supported by most of the relevant academic work over the past 20 years. These studies argue that literacy can only be
understood in its social and technical context. In Renaissance England, for example, many more people could read
than could write, and within reading there was a distinction between those who could read print and those who could
manage the more difficult task of reading manuscript. An understanding of these earlier periods helps us understand
today‘s ‗crisis in literacy‘ debate.
There does seem to be evidence that there has been an overall decline in some aspects of reading and writing - you
only need to compare the tabloid newspapers of today with those of 50 years ago to see a clear decrease in
vocabulary and simplification of syntax. But the picture is not uniform and doesn‘t readily demonstrate the simple
distinction between literate and illiterate which had been considered adequate since the middle of the 19th century.
While reading a certain amount of writing is as crucial as it has ever been in industrial societies, it is doubtful whether a
fully extended grasp of either is as necessary as it was 30 or 40 years ago. While print retains much of its authority as
a source of topical information, television has increasingly usurped this role. The ability to write fluent letters has been
undermined by the telephone and research suggests that for many people the only use for writing, outside formal
education, is the compilation of shopping lists.
The decision of some car manufacturers to issue their instructions to mechanics as a video pack rather than as a
handbook might be taken to spell the end of any automatic link between industrialisation and literacy. On the other
hand, it is also the case that ever-increasing numbers of people make their living out of writing, which is better
rewarded than ever before. Schools are generally seen as institutions where the book rules - film, television and
recorded sound have almost no place; but it is not clear that this opposition is appropriate. While you may not need to
read and write to watch television, you certainly need to be able to read and write in order to make programmes.
Those who work in the new media are anything but illiterate. The traditional oppositions between old and new media
are inadequate for understanding the world which a young child now encounters. The computer has re-established a
central place for the written word on the screen, which used to be entirely devoted to the image. There is even
anecdotal evidence that children are mastering reading and writing in order to get on to the Internet. There is no
reason why the new and old media cannot be integrated in schools to provide the skills to become economically
productive and politically enfranchised.
Nevertheless, there is a crisis in literacy and it would be foolish to ignore it. To understand that literacy may be
declining because it is less central to some aspects of everyday life is not the same as acquiescing in this state of
affairs. The production of school work with the new technologies could be a significant stimulus to literacy. How should
these new technologies be introduced into the schools? It isn‘t enough to call for computers, camcorders and edit
suites in every classroom; unless they are properly integrated into the educational culture, they will stand unused.
Evidence suggests that this is the fate of most information technology used in the classroom. Similarly, although media
studies are now part of the national curriculum, and more and more students are now clamouring to take these course,
teachers remain uncertain about both methods and aims in this area.
This is not the fault of the teachers. The entertainment and information industries must be drawn into a debate with the
educational institutions to determine how best to blend these new technologies into the classroom.
Many people in our era are drawn to the pessimistic view that the new media are destroying old skills and eroding
critical judgement. It may be true that past generations were more literate but - taking the pre-19th century meaning of
the term - this was true of only a small section of the population. The word literacy is a 19th-century coinage to
describe the divorce of reading and writing from a full knowledge of literature. The education reforms of the 19th
century produced reading and writing as skills separable from full participation in the cultural heritage.
The new media now point not only to a futuristic cyber-economy, they also make our cultural past available to the
whole nation. Most children‘s access to these treasures is initially through television. It is doubtful whether our literary
heritage has ever been available to or sought out by more than about 5 per cent of the population; it has certainly not
been available to more than 10 per cent. But the new media joined to the old, through the public service tradition of
British broadcasting, now makes our literary tradition available to all.
Questions 1-4: Choose the appropriate answer A-D.
1. When discussing the debate on literacy in education, the writer notes that
A. children cannot read and write as well as they used to.
B. academic work has improved over the last 20 years.
C. there is evidence that literacy is related to external factors.
D. there are opposing arguments that are equally convincing.
2. In the 4th paragraph, the writer’s main point is that
A. the printed word is both gaining and losing power.
B. all inventions bring disadvantages as well as benefits.
C. those who work in manual jobs no longer need to read.
D. the media offers the best careers for those who like writing.
3. According to the writer, the main problem that schools face today is
A. how best to teach the skills of reading and writing.
B. how best to incorporate technology into classroom teaching.
C. finding the means to purchase technological equipment.
D. managing the widely differing levels of literacy amongst pupils.
4. At the end of the article, the writer is suggesting that
A. literature and culture cannot be divorced.
B. the term ‗literacy‘ has not been very useful.
C. 10 per cent of the population never read literature.
D. our exposure to cultural information is likely to increase.
Questions 5-10
Write
YES if the statement agrees with the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
5. It is not as easy to analyse literacy levels as it used to be.
6. Our literacy skills need to be as highly developed as they were in the past.
7. Illiteracy is on the increase.
8. Professional writers earn relatively more than they used to.
9. A good literacy level is important for those who work in television.
10. Computers are having a negative impact on literacy in schools.
Questions 11-13
Complete the sentences below with words taken from the Reading Passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS
for each answer.
In Renaissance England, the best readers were those able to read 11 ........................
The writer uses the example of 12 ........................ to illustrate the general fall in certain areas of literacy.
It has been shown that after leaving school, the only things that a lot of people write are 13 ........................