Practise Exercises - december

Primary Education - English magister

PRACTICE EXERCISE 1: An Interview with a Neuroscientist on Creativity

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. What is Professor David Eagleman interested in?

2. What’s the title of his book?
3. What does the co-author of the book do?
4. What’s the physical characteristic that differentiates us from other species?
5. How is our process of input and output different from other species?
6. How does the author explain the connection between the case of NASA and Pablo Picasso?
7. The author divides the process of human creativity into three different stages, what are they?

8. Complete these excerpts with the words missing:

• But we see this all the time in the sciences, for example, with DNA ________________, it
turns out that the way that you sequence is by breaking these long ____________ of DNA
into small parts, and that makes it easier to analyse and ___________, and the point being
that it's the same process that is happening in the artist's mind and in the scientists mind, in
both cases it ____________ something…
• ...the astronauts and the mission control centre in Houston had to ________ _____ what they
were going to do to get these astronauts back to Earth. And it was an ________ _____ and
amazing time because what happened is the mission control centre in Houston ____
________ all of these plans on the fly.

Cloze test: READING

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Fill in the gaps by using one suitable word in each space. Gap number (0) is an example:

PSYCHOLOGY: THE SCIENCE OF THE MIND

Psychology is the study of the mind, by far the (0) most sophisticated machine (1)
………………………… Earth. But now can (2) …………………………. as inaccessible as the
mind be studied? Even (3) ……………………. we were to open someone’s skull and look inside,
we would only see the brain, not the mind in action. (4) …………………………… we cannot
observe the mind directly, it controls everything we do. Therefore, psychologists study human
behaviour in (5) …………………….. to discover (6) ………………………… the mind works. The
behaviour (7) …………………………. interests them rages from simple acts such as feeding, to
much more complex skills (8) ………………………. language. Psychologists measure behaviour,
and often use statistics to show that (9) ………………………… they find is reliable evidence and
not just down to chance. The scientific knowledge gained from this research is then used by
practising psychologists. For example, clinical psychologists - (10) …………………………… make
up the largest group of specialists – help people with emotional problems (11)
…………………………….. with their difficulties. Research findings are not only used by
psychologists, but also by other professionals who are concerned (12) ………………………. the
ways people interact – doctors, teachers and judges, to name just a (13) ……………………………..
. A substantial body of psychological knowledge has been built up since the nineteenth century.
Nevertheless, the enormous complexity of the mind (14) …………………………… that there will
always be more to learn about it, (15) ……………………………. much research is undertaken.

SENTENCE TRANSFORMATIONS.

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word
given. Do not change the word given. You must use between three and six words, including the
word given.

1. There is no way Lisa will give up her independence to get married.

OF

Lisa has ____________________________________________ up her independence to get married.

2. Simon really ought to make a decision about his future.

MIND

It’s high time Simon _________________________________________ about his future.

3. There are various ways of avoiding insect bites.

PREVENTED

Insect bites can _______________________________________ various ways.

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4. I think learning to use a typewriter is a waste of time.

POINT

I can’t ____________________________________________ how to use a typewriter.

5. If you don’t pay on time, your booking will be cancelled.

RESULT

Failure to __________________________________________ your booking being cancelled.

What kind of support would you provide to help those students who have not reached the
required objectives and contents?

Why do we need to do to integrate Key Competence 2 Mathematical, Science and Technology as

one of the essential elements in a language course?

PRACTICE EXERCISE 2: Listen to a talk telling a story of massive kidnapping in Nigeria

and a reflection on fake news

Answer the questions below:

1. Who kidnapped Hadiza?

2. How did she manage to escape?

3. How many girls could also escape that day?

4. Why did the speaker go to Abuja, Nigeria?

5. What did the terrorist group film a video for?

6. How many girls are still missing nowadays?

7. Who does the speaker think is the only responsible for spreading fake news?

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8. Complete with the words missing:

a) We put the government ________ ____________. We asked tough questions about what
they were doing to bring these girls back. Understandably, they weren't too happy with our
line of questioning, and let's just say we received our fair share of "___________ ________"
b) Influential Nigerians were telling us at the time that we were _____________, we didn't
understand the political situation in Nigeria. But they also told us that the story of the Chibok
girls was a ____________ .
c) I must confess that I have not been a ______________ _____________ covering this
story. I am furious when I think about the wasted opportunities to rescue these girls.
d) In my job as a journalist, I check, I verify. I trust my _______, but I ask tough questions. Why
is this person telling me this story? What do they have to _____________ by sharing this
information?

READING COMPREHENSION-Thematic development /Summary skills/ Interpreting

intentionality

1) Re-arrange the following 5 jumbled paragraphs in an attempt to ‘re-build’ the initial source
format as conceived by the author:

A. This new teaching and learning context calls for new measures. Teachers, therefore, have to
expand their horizon of available teaching/learning tools beyond the conventional linguistic
and logical methods used in most schools if they want their youngsters to succeed. Without
any doubt, the theory of MI throws light on this process and suggests several other ways in
which the material might be presented to facilitate effective learning. Many teachers may
wonder if it is already hard to teach one intelligence, what if there are seven? This is a
common misbelief, you do not have to teach or learn something in all seven ways. We have
seven different pathways to learning; the teacher should see what the possibilities are and
then decide which particular pathways seem to be the most effective teaching or learning
tools.

B. For many years, our school desks have witnessed how our brains were not fed properly
and were condemned to starve. We went through all the stages of our education system
with more or less success, but we always were left wondering whether or not we were
intelligent. For many years, educators and psychologists have conceptualised our ability to
learn as one uniform cognitive capacity that can be measured. This artificial measure of
intelligence did nothing to judge students’ potential and simply revealed students’ intellectual
shortcomings.

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C. Our education system has traditionally focused most of its attention on the linguistic and
logical-mathematical intelligences, but what about those who show gifts in the other intelligences?
Unfortunately, many children who have these gifts do not receive much reinforcement for them in
school. Many of these kids, in fact, end up being labelled “learning disabled” or simply
underachievers. In the bilingual classroom, the teacher is likely to have even more difficulty in
reaching some students in the more traditional linguistic or logical ways of instruction, since
content-area instruction is given in a L2. The first years have to face a real challenge in the bilingual
classroom, as they must learn how to read and write in Spanish and English at the same time.

D. At the end of the 20th century, Howard Gardner gave teachers a new way to look at the learning
process by claiming that intelligence and learning are multidimensional. Thanks to him, teachers
confirmed something they have always felt: intelligence is not what you are born with and there is
little you can do to change it. Gardner argued that human beings have evolved to have several
distinct intelligences to solve any potential problem in their daily lives. In this way, Gardner
identified the following intelligences: linguistic intelligence or the ability to communicate to each
other; logical-mathematical intelligence or the ability to manipulate numbers or quantities; visual-
spatial intelligence or the ability to present the spatial world visually in your mind; musical
intelligence or the ability to hear music in our head; the kinaesthetic intelligence or the ability to use
the whole or parts of the body to solve a problem; the intrapersonal intelligence or the ability to
know and understand ourselves; and the interpersonal intelligence or the ability to understand other
people. Although each and every intelligence is relatively interdependent or semi-autonomous of the
others, any significant achievement involves a blend of intelligences.

E. At present, a new education system is in the pipeline that will attempt to prevent the alarming
number of students that drop out of school every day. Teachers have difficulty in entering students’
heads and this situation leads to frustration and a lack of motivation on the part of the learner and the
teacher, and eventually to school failure. In other education systems, such as the British or the North
American, teachers have already embraced Gardner’s theory. Many schools in these countries, by
teaching to multiple intelligences, have restructured their curricula to address the needs of their
students.

Order of paragraphs:

1___ 2___ 3___ 4___ 5___

2) Provide a 150-word summary of the article in which you state the essential information. Use the
following beginning:

The article provides an overview of…………………………

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3) Comment on the underlined boldprint sentences which are the opening lines of paragraphs B
and C. Speculate on the underlying intention of the author.

-What are the differences between mother tongue acquisition and foreign language

learning?

-State the criteria that you would use for the selection of a story or class reader in the primary
classroom

PRACTICE EXERCISE 3: Listen to the monologue The Danger of a ‘Single Story’ by

African writer Chimamanda Adichie

COMPREHENSION- Answer the questions below:

a) What does she say about her skills in her childhood ?

b) What kind of stories did she write and what does she say about the characters she depicted?

c) What did Adichie learn when she started reading African books?

d) What do we learn about her family background?

e) What did she realise when she visited Fide’s family?

f) What struck Adichie after talking to her American roommate at university?

g) What is the significance of the title The Danger of a ‘Single Story’?

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h) Provide a definition or synonym for the following words that appear in the recording. (Refer
to their meaning in the recording.)

1. vulnerable:

2. available:

3. to shift:

4. conventional:

5. pity:

Cloze test: READING.

Fill in the gaps by using one suitable word in each space. Gap number (0) is an example:

INTRODUCTION TO A NOVEL

Some years ago, I received a letter (0) from a stranger, Joanna King. It seemed at first to be
(1) ………………….. of those pleasant fan letters that authors are occasionally cheered (2)
…………………….. , but which then (3) ……………………. out to be something else. Joanna had
an aunt, aged ninety-eight, (4) ………………………… had kept a diary from the age of thirteen
until she was ninety-four. (5) …………………….. Joanna nor her husband had ever been allowed to
read any of these diaries, but because their relative was a woman (6) …………………….. strong
opinions, they thought they would be interesting.

The point of writing to me (7) ……………………… to ask my advice. Joanna had read a
memoir I’d written about my own mother and grandmother, two ordinary women with (8)
………………………….. claim to fame, and it had made her wonder (9)……………………….
there was some value in the diaries (10) ………………………… a social document. Could I suggest
(11) ………………… might be done with them?

I suggested that a university might be interested and enclosed various names and addresses. I
said the thought of someone keeping a diary over such (12) ……………………… length of time, so
neatly covering most of a century, was (13)…………………………………. itself extraordinary, and
I would love to read them myself. Joanna replied saying that this was what she had hoped. (14)
……………………….. is, that I myself might be intrigued enough to want to
(15)………………………….. something of them. I hadn’t, in fact, meant that, but once it had been
suggested I began to toy with the prospect.

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USE OF ENGLISH—Choose the lexical or grammatical option which best completes the
sentences below:

1. I’ve got just enough time for a word with you, as long as you make it…
A. brief B. short C. curt D. sharp
2. Being alone in the house all day looking after three young children is enough to make anyone’s
patience wear…
A. thin B. out C. down D. slim
3. Her training in accountancy provided a sound … for work in the financial world.
A. footing B. base C. ground D. basis
4. After years of working together, the partners found themselves … linked.
A. permanently B. indelibly C.perpetually D.inextricably
5. The President decided to release a number of political prisoners as a(n) … of goodwill.
A. gesture B. indication C. pledge D. symbol
6. He justified his harsh words on the grounds that they had been made in the … of the moment.
A. spur B. heat C. flash D. height
7. The company was dealt a … blow when its chief designer deserted to another firm.
A. killing B. homicidal C. mortal D. suicidal
8. Don’t look so worried! You should take the boss’s remarks with a … of salt.
A. teaspoon B. pinch C. grain D. dose
9. Failure to … with the rules will result in dismissal.
A. assent B. comply C. abide D. consent
10. Rachel has a highly developed … of fine art.
A. taste B. reaction C. liking
D. appreciation
11. Our company has holidays that … for all tastes.
A. respond B. cater C. suit D. agree
12. The child showed his … of the food by leaving most of it on his plate.
A.disapproval B. objection C. distaste D. exception

-How can we approach cultural lessons with a view to preventing the most negative effects of
stereotyping?

-Provide a few examples of activities that can be used at the initial stages of primary education
to help young learners become acquainted with graphic sub-skills, as a way of introducing
them to the mechanics of literacy skills.

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PRACTICE EXERCISE 4: Listen to the following extract from

NPR PODCASTS and answer the questions below

1. Fill in the gaps with words from the text initial passage:

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And let's hear now about a very old technology _________ to offer safety to seafarers. Little
Brewster Island just outside Boston _________ is home to America's first lighthouse, Boston Light.
Three hundred years ago today, that ______ outpost began lighting the way for ships. These days,
it's ________ by Sally Snowman.

2. Answer the following questions:

a) Who makes Snowman’s costumes?

b) What happened to the original tower? When did it happen?

c) Complete the following extract with all the quantitative information missing:

MONTAGNE: The new one was built in ________, guiding ships with light powerful enough to see
from ______ miles away.

SNOWMAN: It's an _____-foot crystal made up of ______ prisms that rotates. That makes the -
_______ watt lamp that is on ________ appear to flash.

d) Name two differences between Snowman’s job now and 300 years ago.

e) What is the surface extension of the island where Boston Light is located?

f) What does she say about her first visit to the place as a child?

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Lexical cloze : CHOOSE ONE OPTION (a, b, c or d) to complete the text

THE CAMERA NEVER LIES

Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, (0) believed himself to be a
rational man, a scientist even. But in 1920, when he saw photographs of fairies taken in a garden
(1) …………………….. , he thought he was seeing scientific proof that these tiny creatures really
existed. He published the photographs alongside an article he wrote, (2) …………….. fairies as
supernatural wonders. It was not until 1939 that the two ladies who took the photos admitted these
were (3) …………………….. . They simply cut out pictures of fairies from a book and (4)
…………………… them among flowers. The results are (5) ………………… beautiful. But the
simplicity of the trick (6)…………………………. a basic principle of photography, that the
camera cannot lie.

But it can, and always could. Today, we are used to computer software (7)
…………………………… us to rework our digital images and it is a (8) ……………….. that
photography ever had a true age of innocence. From the moment cameras began capturing reality,
that reality was being altered.

1. A venue B setting C background D surrounding

2. A calling B naming C attributing D acknowledging
3. A false B faulty C fake D fictional
4. A arranged B spaced C settled D distributed
5. A categorically B unavoidably C substantially D undeniably
6. A weakens B undermines C demolishes D dismantles
7. A letting B supporting C enabling D empowering
8. A fantasy B legend C dream D myth

What’s the difference between bottom-up and top-down information processing strategies in
listening comprehension?

Topic-based teaching: argue some reasons for using this approach

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