Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 44 to 50
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 44 to 50.
A generation of teenagers who communicate via the Internet and by text messages are risking unemployment because their daily vocabulary consists of just 800 words, experts have warned. According to recent surveys, they know an average of 40,000 words, but they favour a 'teenspeak' used in text messages, social networking sites and Internet chat rooms. Communication expert Jean Gross thinks that the lack of range will affect their chances of getting a job. Miss Gross is planning a nationwide campaign to ensure children use their full language potential.
She wants to make sure that teenagers do not fail in the classroom and later, in the workplace, because they are inarticulate. It will target schoolchildren and she is asking celebrities to support her campaign. ‘Teenagers are spending more time communicating through electronic media and text messaging, which is short and brief, she says. ‘We need to help them understand the difference between their textspeak and the formal language they need to succeed in life - 800 words will not get you a job.’ She plans to send children with video cameras into workplaces to observe the range of words used by professionals and share their findings with classmates. She also wants parents to limit the amount of TV that children watch, replacing it with conversation.
Her concern was raised, she said, by research conducted by Tony McEnery, a professor of linguistics, who examined 10 million words of transcribed speech and 100,000 words from teenagers' blogs. He found that teens use their top 20 words in a third of their speech, and also discovered words likely to be unknown to adults, including 'chenzed, which means tired, 'spong' (silly), and 'lol, the shorthand version of 'laugh out loud.
John Bald, a language teaching consultant, said the poor use of language was a rebellious act. 'There is undoubtedly a culture among teenagers of deliberately stripping away language, he said. 'When kids are in social situations, the instinct is to simplify. It's part of a wider anti-school culture that exists among some children which parents and schools need to address! But David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at Bangor University, argues that experts did not understand the complexities of teen language. 'The real issue here is that people object to kids having a good vocabulary for hip-hop and not for politics, he said. 'They have an articulate vocabulary for the kind of things they want to talk about. Academics don't get anywhere near measuring that vocabulary!’
(Adapted from Gateway by Frances Treloar)
Question 44. Which best serves as the title for the passage?
A. The Impacts of Text Messages on Teens’ Vocabulary
B. Teenagers’ Vocabulary Fail to Work
C. Teens’ Language Poses a Threat to Reading Culture
D. ‘TeenSpeak’ – A Way to Increase Your Employability
Question 45. According to paragraph 1, experts believe that teenagers ______ .
A. learn too few words when they are growing up
B. only use part of the vocabulary they know very well
C. can’t get a job easily because of their lack of vocabulary
D. find it difficult to communicate with employers
Question 46. The word inarticulate in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ______ .
A. too slow to react B. bad at calculating
C. unable express thoughts clearly D. easy to be influenced by others
Question 47. The word they in paragraph 2 refers to ______ .
A. words B. cameras C. teenagers D. celebrities
Question 48. The word address in paragraph 4 can be best replaced by ______ .
A. deal with B. switch off C. adapt to D. compete for
Question 49. Which of the following is true, according to the passage?
A. The campaign launched by Ms. Gross aims at students who are excellent at communicating.
B. Teenagers have the habit of using short and simple language while chatting online.
C. Tony McEnery was taken aback to discover some unusual words invented by teenagers.
D. John Bald and David Crystal share the idea of the anti-school culture among young people.
Question 50. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A. Parents often adopt permissive attitudes towards their children’s compulsive TV watching.
B. Experts’ judgements about teenagers’ poor language can be based on the wrong principles.
C. Teenagers are always the pioneers who pave the way for a new range of vocabulary.
D. Some teen languages are quite prevalent in today’s professional working environment.