Section 1

You will have 15 minutes to complete this section.

 

Passage 1: A vacation postcard

 

Dear Millie,

You wouldn’t believe Costa Rica! It’s really peaceful. Judy and I have been staying in a tent at a campground on the beach. We’re studying a little Spanish with a cute guy who teaches English in school here, but I think he’s learning more English than we are Spanish. Judy brought her guitar, so we enjoy singing around the campfire at night.

Love,

Sheila

Passage 2: The Scot and the tea kettle

 

According to one story, a Scottish boy watched the steam lift the top off his mother’s tea kettle and realized the power of steam to make machines work.

That boy, James Watt, would then go on to invent the modern steam engine on 1769. Actually, the history of steam technology records the successful work of several scientists and engineers Watt. For example, in 1698, Thomas Savery had introduced a simple steam pump to remove water from mines, and 14 years later Thomas Newcomen invented a better pump. But these pumps weren’t efficient because they used so much fuel. In 1769, the Scottish boy, James Watt, figured out a way to save   three-quarters of the fuel. To honor him, his last name because the name of a unit of energy.

Passage 3: Wide open spaces

 

Visitors to the United States, especially those from Japan or the smaller countries of Europe, are likely to comment on the size and scale of everything. Although the downtown section of some of the older cities such as Boston and Philadelphia may look similar to their own larger cities, other aspects are likely to appear “out of scale” for example, the average American farm is huge in comparison with the typical family farm of Europe and Asia. Across the Great Plains, farmers use great machines to plant and harvest enormous quantities of wheat. Such farms offer a dramatic contrast to the tiny farms of Europe or Asia, where intense human labor is more important. The main cities of the United States are connected by a vast system of highways and superhighways moving endless streams of cars and trucks, while on the edge of the cities, suburban developments and shopping centers with huge parking lots stretch for mile. It’s as if Americans made everything larger, just to use up the available space.

 

Passage 4: Staying in touch

 

People don’t need to be in close physical contact to feel “connected “emotionally. Over the years, various means of communication have been used to enable human beings to keep in contact with one another. Letters, telegrams, and telephones have allowed individuals located in different places to share news and to interact with family, friends, and business relationships.

In today’s World, with more and more people on the move, long-distance communication has become even more important. At the same time, changes in technology, particularly the introduction of computers and the increasing use of electronic mail, have made it easier than ever to stay in contact. There are two main reasons why e-mail has become so widespread: time and money. Although mail service and telephones can be found almost everywhere, a letter can take a long time to arrive and phone calls are often quite expensive.

E-mail seems to be replacing other forms of communication for many purposes. As the use of computers has spread, many people use e-mail rather than regular mail to send personal messages. Because it has become so easy to send pictures and information via the internet, it has also become commonplace to use e-mail in business. E-mail has even given rise to a new type of communication, the “chat room” where groups of people who do not know each other personally can talk about topics of mutual interest. While some people are enthusiastic about communication in the modern age, others regret the growing depersonalization brought on by the use of e-mail. Communication has become so easy and yet so removed from the normal process of face-to-face interaction that researches have concluded that a whole new culture of communication may be forming.

 

Passage 5:   Biofeedback

 

When biofeedback was first developed a number of years ago, it caused a lot of excitement. People hoped that biofeedback could be used to cure all kinds of physical and mental problems.

    Biofeedback is the name for a medical technique that helps people treat certain problems by becoming more aware of their own bodies. In biofeedback, instruments that measure bodily functions such as muscle tension, temperature, and blood flow are attached to the body. The instruments produce signals - for example, a series of sounds (beeps) or a flashing light – that the person can hear or see. The patient then uses the information to help gain control; over the function.

The most widely used biofeedback instrument is the electromyography, or EMG. The EMG is used to measure muscle tension. It is made up of several electrodes, which are placed on the skin near a particular area, depending on the symptom. For example, for headaches, a symptom often caused by excessive tension in the neck muscles, the electrodes are placed on the forehead or near the back of the neck. When the tension is present, the EMG produces a signal and the patient is taught to respond by relaxing the appropriate muscles. In many cases, the relaxation of these muscles causes the headache to go away.

While biofeedback has not turned out to be a cure-all, it has been used successfully to treat a limited number of problems – especially those caused by chronic tension.

Section 2

You will have 10 minutes to complete this section

 

Choose the word or words that best completes the sentence