READY FOR C1 UNIT 3 TEST

Student name

Group/Class

Date Score

VOCABULARY

Information and research 2

1 Choose the correct answers (A, B or C) to complete the sentences.

1 A leading scientist has a different view about the best way to deal with
the virus.

A put forward B determined C uncovered

2 Some people have suggested that the best way to deal with the spread of
is to teach young children about fake news.

A sources B findings C misinformation

3 According to some , artificial intelligence will soon overtake human

intelligence, although whether this will actually happen is up for debate.

A hypotheses B misinformation C compilations

4 Is it a journalist’s role to simply report what is happening, or to the truth

about a situation?

A compile B uncover C prove

5 After a long look at all the available evidence, the suspect was , without a
shadow of a doubt, to be innocent.

A put forward B proven C hypothesised

6 There have recently been some concerns about security and in relation to
the personal data that social media companies acquire.

A sources B findings C privacy

 7 It took several months to all the data in the form of an easy-to-read
report.

A compile B determine C prove

8 Police are carefully investigating the scene of the accident to what exactly
might have caused it.

A prove B determine C source

WORD FORMATION

Adjectives

2 Complete each gap with the correct form of the word in brackets.

1 Social media companies are hugely (influence) in terms of the way

people consume news and information.

2 Some celebrities prefer to remain (mystery) rather than share

details of their private life with the public.

3 I’m not a naturally (chat) person in real life, but I do enjoy having
discussions with people online.

4 One of the big (contradict) of modern life is that we have a huge

amount of information at our fingerprints, but it’s difficult for many of us to decide
what is really true.

5 Some TV shows prefer politicians to be (argument) with each other

rather than discuss things calmly.

6 There are some famous people who seem friendly on the screen but are probably
quite (approach) in real life.

7 I try not to discuss politics with my family. If I do, we just have (end)
disagreements.

8 Yesterday, a politician put an interesting comment online, but then she quickly
deleted it. Its (appear) is causing a lot of debate.

9 There has been a (drama) increase in the number of smartphone

users over the last 10 years.

10 Sorry, my shoes are so (mud) – I’ve just been walking near the river.

READING AND USE OF ENGLISH

Part 2 Open cloze

3 For questions 1–8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each
gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0). Write
your answers in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Reducing screen time

In the 21st century, there (0) HAS been growing concern about the pervasive
influence of technology. Certainly, over (1) past few years, most children and
teens have spent a larger proportion of their free time on social media, binging TV shows
and gaming. So much so that (2) have become an integral part of everyday life;
thereby adding to their screen time considerably.

Parents probably need to step (3) and monitor the screen time of their children.
Furthermore, educators should insist on giving hands-on creative assignments and
emphasis must be laid (4) using hybrid models to impart the lessons. To instil
the habit (5) using pen and paper, educators can ask learners to maintain
handwritten notes and submit scanned documents. Educators, parents and learners
should collaborate to (6) an eye on when it is time to switch off and take a
break.

It’s not just young people though. We all need to find and maintain a balance between
on-screen and off-screen time. We must expect that some part of the day will involve
(7) in front of a screen, but it is essential for physical and mental health that it is
not the majority of our waking hours! To help the brain unwind, it’s recommended to
stay in touch with the creative pursuits, (8) as sketching, painting, playing music
and so on.

Part 7 Gapped text

4 You are going to read an extract from a magazine article. Six paragraphs have been
removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A–G the one which fits each
gap (1–6). There is one extra paragraph that you do not need to use.

What is technology doing to our memories?

Here’s a quick quiz. Let’s see how many questions you can answer without using a
search engine or your phone. What’s the Icelandic capital, and how do you spell it? Now
think of three friends or family members. What are their phone numbers and email
addresses? And finally, what is your bank account number?

[1]
In fact, we have happily allowed technology to become an extension of our own brains.
There is a huge amount of information that we don’t need to store in our own minds
because our smartphones will do it for us. But is this good for us?
[2]
The results were interesting. When quizzed later as to what the people had seen, those
who hadn’t taken any photos were able to remember up to 20% more in the way of
details about the paintings.

[3]
Researchers have suggested that what is happening here is a form of cognitive
offloading of information. We are externalising our memories and giving the task of
storing them to the technology we use.

[4]
What we now do with smartphones, hard drives or online cloud networks isn’t exactly
new. Humans have always externalised information. That’s why we have long had
libraries full of books, or people like professors and teachers in our societies, whose
function is partly to act as repositories of knowledge.

[5]
In short, we are entrusting technology to remember far more than ever before. And the
more this happens, the more we start to believe that there is little point in committing
‘minor’ facts (such as your own bank account number or where certain roads are in your
own town) to memory when you know that it’s easily accessible online somewhere.

[6]
And what happens if that technology suddenly stops working, or if for some reason, the
internet became unavailable to us? What would happen to all our memories then?

A In similar experiments, it was found that any form of recording an object or an event
was likely to reduce a person’s ability to remember details about it. This happened
whether the person was taking a photo of something or writing down notes about it.

B The term ‘digital amnesia’ is sometimes used to describe this phenomenon. There is
no doubt that technology is an incredibly useful aid. But while we needn’t needlessly
fill our heads with often trivial-seeming information, is it a good idea to essentially
give computers the job of remembering everything about our lives?
 C Not only this, but when we spend time photographing something, we are, of course
likely to be concentrating just as much or more on the act of recording as on the
object of the recording. Someone recording a band at a concert may remember more
about how difficult it was to take a recording with so many people in front of them,
or how hard it was to keep their hand in the air, than the actual concert itself.

D Of course, these might seem like easy questions. And information like this is
accessible merely through a flurry of brief activity on a touchscreen or by going
online for a few seconds. But what we have done is to entrust huge amounts of
information about not only our world, but about our personal lives as well to
technology.

E There has – for a very long time now – been simply too much information in the
world to store inside one human brain. And as the extent of human knowledge
expands and accelerates, we will rely more and more on technology to store
information for us.

F There’s been some research to suggest that this might not be the case. Let’s take
photos as an example. It has been discovered that when we take a photo of an event,
the event itself becomes less memorable. In one experiment, a group of people were
put in front of some paintings. One half of the group were asked to simply gaze upon
the works of art. The other half could take photos of them – just as people often do
in art galleries.

G This has been termed the ‘Google Effect’. Basically, it’s a tendency to forget things –
or not bother to remember things – which are easily found in a quick internet search.
There is no doubt that being able to use search engines is incredibly useful. But there
is another problem that we need to consider.

WRITING

Part 2 Report
 5 You are a student representative. The chancellor of your university has asked you to
write a report describing the causes of stress amongst undergraduates and also
offering suggestions for possible solutions to this problem.
Write your report in 220–260 words in an appropriate style.

SPEAKING

Part 3 Collaborative task

6 Talk about something together for about two minutes.
Here are some different ways in which you can find information for your research.

Talk with your partner about the advantages of using information from these
sources.

Now you have about a minute to decide which two sources of information are most
reliable.