Read the following three unrelated extracts from a range of sources and mark the letter (A, B, C, or D) on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions 1 to 6:
Extract One:
The volume of stuff that seems to warrant inclusion in the category that we might call ‘design’ has increased enormously in recent years, as has the number of people who create, manufacture, retail and consume it – not to mention those employed to critique or champion it in the media. But our understanding of design is outdated, limited by definitions from the beginning of the last century, when concepts such as consumerism, lifestyle, popular culture and marketing were in their infancy. The landscape has changed and new maps are required to make sense of it.
A recent row at London’s Design Museum is a symptom of the mismatch between ideology and reality. Chairman James Dyson – a maverick designer-engineer who made his fortune with his ‘cyclonic’ vacuum cleaner – resigned over the museum’s change in direction under director Alice Rawsthorn, who, he believes, has betrayed the museum’s founding mission to ‘encourage the serious design of the manufactured object’.
Dyson’s website defines design as ‘how something works, not how it looks – the design should evolve from the function’. His vacuum cleaners are ostensibly pure expressions of the mechanics of dust-sucking. According to Dyson, Rawsthorn’s exhibition programme presents design as a ‘shallow style’. He claims it pursues a populist agenda at the expense of one that encourages an appreciation of the processes leading to manufactured objects which perform better than their predecessors. Rawsthorn, reluctant to reignite the row, would not give us a definition, but did say she was seeking ‘a modern definition of diverse and inclusive design’.
Question 1: In this extract, the writer is ___________ .
A. questioning the relevance of one man’s definition of the word ‘design’.
B. complaining about the imprecise way the word ‘design’ is now used.
C. lending his support to one interpretation of the meaning of ‘design’.
D. calling for a re-evaluation of what is meant by the word ‘design’.
Question 2: From the extract, we learn that Alice Rawsthorn does not ___________ .
A. want to prolong her argument with James Dyson.
B. mind what James Dyson says about her work at the museum.
C. agree that the museum was set up to promote one type of design.
D. accept that she has altered the focus of the museum’s exhibitions.
Extract Two:
Tanya Elks, a psychology professor, recalls: “My paper was a critique of a published paper – a scenario which isn’t well handled by the conventional journals. Under their system of anonymous peer reviewing, either the authors of the original paper are chosen as reviewers and there is a risk that the unscrupulous ones might block a critical paper, or they are not chosen and may justifiably complain about misrepresentation. As we posted a preprint, the original authors had their say and we could take their points on board. All the commentary is out in the open so readers can evaluate the quality of the arguments. The possibility of rejection by journals is less of an issue too, given that we will still have the preprint and comments out in the public domain, so our work won’t be wasted.”
Preprint archives enable, on a global scale, the informal scientific discussions once confined to correspondence between individuals. They could also become an effective outlet for negative results a vital aspect of the scientific process often overlooked by the journals’ excessive preoccupation with new discoveries. Furthermore, the presence on preprint archives significantly increases the number of times papers are read and cited by others; a potent demonstration of the efficacy of dissemination through preprint. By harnessing the web’s culture of openness and accessibility and recalling the collaborative, amateur ethos still at large within the scientific community, preprints should help to refocus attention where it matters on the work itself, not where it is published.
Question 3: What point does Tanya Elks make about her experience of posting a preprint?
A. Her work is less likely to be rejected now since others have made positive comments about it in public.
B. It was unfair to use the authors of the research she was evaluating to review her paper.
C. She chose a preprint because she feared her paper would not otherwise be published.
D. She appreciated the fact that she could see what fellow scientists thought of her paper.
Question 4: The phrase "collaborative, amateur ethos" in the final paragraph refers back to the earlier phrase ____________ .
A. "correspondence between individuals".
B. "effective outlet for negative results".
C. "preoccupation with new discoveries".
D. "efficacy of dissemination".
Extract Three:
Like many 18th and 19th-century composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart spent a large part of his life on the road. During this time, he impulsively poured his unexpurgated thoughts into copious letters home. These are of crucial biographical importance, but their translation is problematic. Mozart had no formal education and wrote in a mixture of German, French and Italian. His grammar and spelling were unruly and his literary efforts were idiosyncratic in the highest degree. Although the words themselves are easily decoded with the help of bilingual dictionaries, the real problem lies in the tone and, as Robert Spaethling observes, previous translators have ducked this. He points to the inappropriateness of reading the letters in impeccable grammar and aims rather to preserve the natural flow and flavour of Mozart’s original style.
Spaethling obviously loves words, and linguistic nuance, as much as Mozart did himself. And when the linguistic games are at their most complex, he democratically prints the original alongside the translation so that we can quarrel and do better. The beauty of this work is that now we can see how – casually and seemingly without trying – Mozart parodies the epistolary modes of the day. And it’s possible to see a connection between this freewheeling brilliance with words and his prodigious musical abilities.
Question 5: Which phrase from this extract confirms the idea that Mozart intended his letters to be amusing?
A. "impulsively poured"
B. "idiosyncratic in the highest degree"
C. "natural flow and flavour"
D. "parodies the epistolary modes"
Question 6: Which of the following best summarises the reviewer’s opinion of the new translation?
A. It reveals previously neglected facts about Mozart.
B. It throws further light on Mozart’s genius.
C. It allows a reinterpretation of Mozart’s music.
D. It underlines the need for further research about Mozart.
Question 1: In this extract, the writer is ___________ .
A. questioning the relevance of one man’s definition of the word ‘design’.
B. complaining about the imprecise way the word ‘design’ is now used.
C. lending his support to one interpretation of the meaning of ‘design’.
D. calling for a re-evaluation of what is meant by the word ‘design’.
Question 2: From the extract, we learn that Alice Rawsthorn does not ___________ .
A. want to prolong her argument with James Dyson.
B. mind what James Dyson says about her work at the museum.
C. agree that the museum was set up to promote one type of design.
D. accept that she has altered the focus of the museum’s exhibitions.
Question 3: What point does Tanya Elks make about her experience of posting a preprint?
A. Her work is less likely to be rejected now since others have made positive comments about it in public.
B. It was unfair to use the authors of the research she was evaluating to review her paper.
C. She chose a preprint because she feared her paper would not otherwise be published.
D. She appreciated the fact that she could see what fellow scientists thought of her paper.
Question 4: The phrase "collaborative, amateur ethos" in the final paragraph refers back to the earlier phrase ____________ .
A. "correspondence between individuals".
B. "effective outlet for negative results".
C. "preoccupation with new discoveries".
D. "efficacy of dissemination".
Question 5: Which phrase from this extract confirms the idea that Mozart intended his letters to be amusing?
A. "impulsively poured"
B. "idiosyncratic in the highest degree"
C. "natural flow and flavour"
D. "parodies the epistolary modes"
Question 6: Which of the following best summarises the reviewer’s opinion of the new translation?
A. It reveals previously neglected facts about Mozart.
B. It throws further light on Mozart’s genius.
C. It allows a reinterpretation of Mozart’s music.
D. It underlines the need for further research about Mozart.
