VSTEP TEST 1 Reading

READING (60 minutes)

Directions: In this section of the test, you will read FOUR different passages, each followed by 10 questions about it. For questions 1-40, you are to choose the best answer A, B, C or D, to each question. Then, on your answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space that corresponds to the letter of the answer you have chosen. Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.

PART ONE

There are a number of natural disasters that can strike across the globe. Two that are frequently linked to one another are earthquakes and tsunamis. Both of them can cause a great amount of devastation when they hit. However, tsunamis are the direct result of earthquakes and cannot happen without them.

            The Earth has three main parts. There are the crust, the mantle, and the core. The crust is the outer layer of the Earth. It is not a piece of land. Instead, it is a comprise of a number of plates. [A] There are a few enormous plates and many smaller ones. These plates essentially rest upon the mantle, which is fluid. As a result, the plates are in constant-yet slow-motion. [B] The plates may move away from or toward other plates. In some cases, they collide violently with the plates adjoining them. [C] Over a long time, this tension may build up. When it is released, an earthquake happens. [D]

            Tens of thousands of earthquakes happen every year. The vast majority are so small that only scientific instruments can perceive them. Others are powerful enough that people can feel them, yet they cause little harm or damage. More powerful earthquakes, however, can cause buildings, bridges, and other structures to collapse. They may additionally injure and kill thousands of people and might even cause the land to change its appearance.

Since most of the Earth’s surface is water, numerous earthquakes happen beneath the planet’s oceans. Underwater earthquakes cause the seafloor to move. This results in the displacement of water in the ocean. When this occurs, a tsunami may form. This is a wave that forms on the surface and moves in all directions from the place where the earthquake happened. A tsunami moves extremely quickly and can travel thousands of kilometres. As it approaches land, the water near the coast gets sucked out to sea. This causes the tsunami to increase in height. Minutes later, the tsunami arrives. A large tsunami _ one more than ten metres in height _ can travel far inland. As it does that, it can flood the land, destroy human settlements, and kill large numbers of people.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

PART 2

SAFARI HOLIDAYS

If you want to get really close to the wildlife and scenery of Africa, then a Safari Holiday offers the most excitement and best value for money.

The Right Trucks for Africa

Each of our safari trucks is a safe, reliable vehicle which is suited to African travel conditions and allows you to fully enjoy the areas visited. Every seat is a window seat and the sides of the truck can be rolled up to provide a wide space for looking out. We use four-wheel-drive vehicles because roads can be rough or get washed away, and we don’t want to be prevented from visiting interesting areas.

The Safari Team

Three of our employees go on each safari trip, one of whom is the team leader. All safari team leaders are fully trained and have worked for at least a year on a wide variety of trips in Africa before they lead their first safari. The team leader is a driver, mechanic, guide, diplomat and general expert on Africa. He is helped by a second driver, usually a team leader in training. The third member of the team, the cook, is as important as the leader. He or she sees that all cooking and camp tasks are completed as smoothly as possible.

Good Food

Safari Holidays are famous for their open-fire cooking. We stop regularly to buy fresh fruit, vegetables and meat in local markets and we also have a good supply of things like tea, coffee, dried milk and tinned food in the truck. All the members of the tour lend a hand with the food preparation and washing-up, under the experienced eye of the team cook. At the beginning of each trip, everyone, including the safari team members, pays the same amount of money into the safari purse and this covers food expenses. All water carried on the truck is safe to drink and we make sure it never runs out.

Quality Camping Equipment

Each truck carries everything needed for the trip. This includes four-person tents, used for only two people, air beds, mosquito nets, camp chairs, a fire grill for campfire cooking and all necessary cooking equipment, a cool box for storing fresh food, binoculars, books on Africa and a first-aid kit.

Accommodation

On Safari Holidays, we sometimes camp in an official campsite and sometimes we put up our tents in wild areas. Some campsites have very basic or no facilities, while at others hot showers and cold drinks are available. At the start or finish of tours, we usually have a night in a hotel. These are clean, comfortable and reasonably priced.

PART THREE

ATTITUDES TO LANGUAGE

It is not easy to be systematic and objective about language study. Popular linguistic debate regularly deteriorates into invective and polemic. Language belongs to everyone, so most people feel they have a right to hold an opinion about it. And when opinions differ, emotions can run high. Arguments can start as easily over minor points of usage as over major policies of linguistic education.

Language, moreover, is a very public behavior, so it is easy for different usages to be noted and criticized. No part of society or social behavior is exempt: linguistic factors influence how we judge personality, intelligence, social status, educational standards, job attitude, and many other areas of identity and social survival. As a result, it is easy to hurt, and to be hurt, when language use is unfeelingly attacked.

[A] In its most general sense, prescriptivism is the view that one variety of language has an inherently higher value than others, and that this ought to be imposed on the whole of the speech community. [B] The view is pronounced especially in relation to grammar and vocabulary, and frequently with reference to pronunciation. [C] Adherents to this variety are said to speak or write ‘correctly’; deviations from it are said to be ‘incorrect’.

All the main languages have been studied prescriptively, especially in the 18^th century approach to the writing of grammar and dictionaries. [D] The aims of these early grammarians were three fold: (i) they wanted to codify the principles of their languages, to show that there was a system beneath the apparent chaos of usage, (ii) they wanted a means of settling disputes over usage, and (iii) they wanted to point out what they felt to be common errors, in order to ‘improve’ the language. The authoritarian nature of the approach is best characterized by its reliance on ‘rules’ on grammar. Some usages are ‘prescribed’, to be learnt and followed accurately; others are ‘proscribed’, to be avoided. In this early period, there were no half-measures: usage was either right or wrong, and it was the task of the grammarian not simply to record alternatives, but to pronounce judgement upon them.

These attitudes are still with us, and they motivate a widespread concern that linguistic standards should be maintained. Nevertheless, there is an alternative point of view that is concerned less with standards than with the facts of linguistic usage. This approach is summarized in the statement that it is the task of the grammarian to describe, not prescribe_ to record the facts of linguistic diversity, and not to attempt the impossible tasks of evaluating language variation or halting language change. In the second half of the 18^th century, we already find advocates of this view, such as Joseph Priesley, whose Rudiments of English Grammar (1976) insists that ‘the custom of speaking is the original and only just standard of any language’. Linguistic issues, it is argued, cannot be solved by logic and legislation. And this view has become the tenet of the modern linguistic approach to grammatical analysis.

In our own time, the opposition between ‘descriptivists’ and ‘prescriptivists’ has often become extreme, with both sides painting unreal pictures of the other. Descriptive grammarians have been presented as people who do not care about standards, because of the way they see all forms of usage as equally valid. Prescriptive grammarians have been presented as bind adherents to a historical tradition. The opposition has even been presented in quasi-political terms of radical liberalism vs elitist conservatism.

21. The word it in paragraph 1 refers to

PART FOUR

MUSIC AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The Industrial Revolution began with the introduction of steam power and mechanized manufacturing in the second half of the eighteenth century. This quickly led to the innovations of machine tools and factory assembly lines. Later, steam-ships and the railroad allowed supplies and products to be transferred expeditiously to distant destinations. Roughly defined as the period from 1760 to 1830 and beyond, the Industrial Revolution utterly transformed the technologies and economics of the world. But such changes were not simply limited to production; cultural institutions were profoundly affected as well. A study of Western music during this time demonstrates how thoroughly the consequences of the Industrial Revolution permeated people's lives.

Western music in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is categorized into two periods: Classical and Romantic. The Classical era is commonly demarcated as 1730-1820, before and concurrent with the early stages of the Industrial Revolution. Famous composers such as Mozart and Haydn were active during this time frame. They produced pieces written for soloists, small chamber music ensembles, and the limited full orchestras of the time.

The style of the music developed by Classical composers was fundamentally shaped by their intended audience. In the eighteenth century, musicians wrote and presented music only for high society - the aristocracy, fellow musicians, and the Church. The great majority of the population had no exposure to music other than traditional folk songs. Most composers were actually retained by noblemen or other powerful people as servants to provide music for their courts. Not only were concerts held in these formal settings; most people who attended a performance had at least some background knowledge of the musical principles of order and symmetry that were accepted at the time. For these reasons, Classical composers tended to adhere strictly to the established forms and rules assigned to the particular types of pieces they created. The structure of a composition was of equal or typically more importance than the emotional result of the music.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, when the myriad technological advancements of the Industrial Revolution were really beginning to affect the lives of ordinary people, Classicism in Western music was gradually giving way to a new style — Romanticism. The Romantic period usually dates from 1820 to about 1910. Though some basic forms carried over from the Classical period, there were significant changes on many levels. Most obviously, improved manufacturing processes developed during the Industrial Revolution translated into better-quality instruments. Pianos, violins, and other stringed instruments were built stronger and louder. In particular, the woodwinds benefited from newly introduced mechanical components, giving them a much more appealing sound, and they became quite popular. The end result was a greatly expanded orchestra with a wider variety of instruments. Composers such as Brahms, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky were the dominant creators of this period.

Another dramatic outcome of the Industrial Revolution was the rise of the middle class, a segment of society with enough expendable income to pay to attend concerts and recitals. This new, sizable audience meant that musical performance no longer had to be organized to cater solely to high society. Larger, more elaborate concerts were held, and this shift altered the music itself. Composers experimented with stretching and even breaking the limits of the old Classical rules. Popular Romantic ideals of imagination and emotion were reflected in the music. Folk tunes were ever utilized to relate to a broader audience. Also during this time, musicians and composers lost their roles as servants to the aristocracy and gained celebrity status as more and more people were exposed to their work.

The transference of music from high to middle classes not only manifested itself in large orchestral performances, but on a much smaller scale as well. In addition to enabling the creation of higher quality instruments, the Industrial Revolution also introduced their mass production. Ordinary people could now afford to buy their own pianos, violins, and guitars. In many homes, the parlor room was the center of family life, and during the Romantic period, it became the frequent site of solo and ensemble performances. Such events served as entertainment for guests, musical education for children, and an occupation for many musicians who made a living performing in these private spaces. Music which once had existed only within aristocratic courts was now being heard in middle-class homes throughout the Western world.

31. The phrase ‘thoroughly permeated’ in paragraph 1 is best replaced by