PASSAGE 2 – Questions 11-20

No student of a foreign language needs to be told that grammar is complex. By changing word sequences and by adding a range of auxiliary verbs and suffixes, we are able to communicate tiny variations in meaning. We can turn a statement into a question, state whether an action has taken place or is soon to take place, and perform many other word tricks to convey subtle differences in meaning. Nor is this complexity inherent to the English language. All languages, even those of so-called 'primitive' tribes have clever grammatical components. The Cherokee pronoun system, for example, can distinguish between 'you and I', 'several other people and I' and 'you, another person and I'. In English, all these meanings are summed up in the one, crude pronoun 'we'. Grammar is universal and plays a part in every language, no matter how widespread it is. So the question which has baffled many linguists is – who created grammar?

At first, it would appear that this question is impossible to answer. To find out how grammar is created, someone needs to be present at the time of a language's creation, documenting its emergence. Many historical linguists are able to trace modern complex languages back to earlier languages, but in order to answer the question of how complex languages are actually formed, the researcher needs to observe how languages are created from scratch. Amazingly, however, this is possible.

Some of the most recent languages evolved due to the Atlantic slave trade. At that time, slaves from a number of different ethnicities were forced to work together under colonizer's rule. Since they had no opportunity to learn each other's languages, they developed a make-shift language called a pidgin. Pidgins are strings of words copied from the language of the landowner. They have little in the way of grammar, and in many cases it is difficult for a listener to deduce when an event happened, and who did what to whom. [A] Speakers need to use circumlocution in order to make their meaning understood. [B] Interestingly, however, all it takes for a pidgin to become a complex language is for a group of children to be exposed to it at the time when they learn their mother tongue. [C] Slave children did not simply copy the strings of words uttered by their elders, they adapted their words to create a new, expressive language. [D] Complex grammar systems which emerge from pidgins are termed creoles, and they are invented by children.

Further evidence of this can be seen in studying sign languages for the deaf. Sign languages are not simply a series of gestures; they utilize the same grammatical machinery that is found in spoken languages. Moreover, there are many different languages used worldwide. The creation of one such language was documented quite recently in Nicaragua. Previously, all deaf people were isolated from each other, but in 1979 a new government introduced schools for the deaf. Although they began to invent their own sign system, using the gestures that they used at home. It was basically a pidgin. Each child used the signs differently, and there was no consistent grammar. However, children who joined the school later, when this inventive sign system was already around, developed a quite different sign language. Although it was based on the signs of the older children, the younger children's language was more fluid and compact, and it utilized a large range of grammatical devices to clarify meaning. What is more, all the children used the signs in the same way. A new creole was born.

Some linguists believe that many of the world's most established languages were creoles at first. The English past tense -ed ending may have evolved from the verb 'do'. 'It ended' may once have been 'It end-did'. Therefore it would appear that even the most widespread languages were partly created by children. Children appear to have innate grammatical machinery in their brains, which springs to life when they are first trying to make sense of the world around them. Their minds can serve to create logical, complex structures, even when there is no grammar present for them to copy.

Câu 11: In paragraph 1, why does the writer include information about the Cherokee language?

PASSAGE 3 – Questions 21-30

Memorandum

To all staff,

The hospital is always trying to cut its carbon footprint, and to do this, we want to encourage staff, visitors and patients to use environmentally-friendly forms of transport to and from the hospital. Therefore, we are making the following changes, which will come into effect from 1st April:

Car Park A will stay as a staff car park, but, to encourage car sharing, it will only be available to cars containing 3 passengers or more. This rule will be in place between 7am and 6pm. A car park attendant will monitor users. Note that cars do not have to leave the car park with three passengers. The parking fee will remain at the current price of £1 an hour up to a maximum of £5 per day. If you are interested in car sharing and wish to find members of staff who live in your area or along your route, please click on the link on the human resources page of the hospital website. Car Park C, previously a staff-only car park, will now be open to visitors at the increased cost of £2/hour up to 5 hours, and £1 an hour after that. These new rates will also apply to staff/visitor Car Park E. Car Park B will only be open to blue card holders. Only senior and emergency staff are eligible for this card.

Car park D will no longer be in use, as it will make way for an improved bus park. The current bus service (Service 56D) from the city centre will be replaced by two services. The service will be available to staff, patients and visitors alike.

Service 57A will run from: Hebdon Town centre, Hebden Station, Critchley Park and Ride, Grafton Street Train Station, Portchester City Centre (Bus Stop D on Mill Yard) to the hospital. The service will run 24 hours a day every 20 minutes between 7am and 7pm and once an hour during the night.

Service 62A will run from Oldgrave Town Centre, Kings Wood Park and Ride and Polegate Park and Ride to the hospital every 15 minutes between 7.30 am and 7.00 pm and once every 30 minutes thereafter.

The buses will have a flat rate of £1 per journey. Staff will be able to buy a bus pass valid for 20 trips for just £15. These can be purchased on the bus.

Staff can also purchase a Go! pass from the human resources website. The Go! pass costs £45 and entitles users to park at any of the city's park and ride services for just £2 a day. It is valid for one year.

There will also be an improved lock-up shed for bicycles and motorcycles in the former car park D. Hospital staff may wish to take advantage of the voucher giving 50% off all cycles and cycle accessories bought from Perkin's Wheels, which is downloadable from the Human Resources website. Note that you will have to show your staff ID card at the store when making purchases. There will be a fix-it session once a fortnight in car park D on Fridays at 2pm- 5pm. At this time, bicycle mechanics from Perkins Wheels will give advice on bicycle upkeep and make minor bicycle repairs free of charge.

We hope you will take advantages of these schemes.

Câu 21: Under the rules, staff can only park in car park A at noon if

PASSAGE 4 – Questions 31-40

The modern age is an age of electricity. People are so used to electric lights, radio, televisions, and telephones that it is hard to imagine what life would be like without them. When there is a power failure, people grope about in flickering candlelight. Cars hesitate in the streets because there are no traffic lights to guide them, and food spoils in silent refrigerators.

Yet, people began to understand how electricity works only a little more than two centuries ago. Nature has apparently been experimenting in this field for millions of years. Scientists are discovering more and more that the living world may hold many interesting secrets of electricity that could benefit humanity.

All living cells sent out tiny pulses of electricity. As the heart beats, it sends out pulses of recorded electricity; they form an electrocardiogram, which a doctor can study to determine how well the heart is working. The brain, too, sends out brain waves of electricity, which can be recorded in an electroencephalogram. The electric currents generated by most living cells are extremely small-often so small that sensitive instruments are needed to record them. But in some animals, certain muscle cells have become so specialized as electrical generators that they do not work as muscle cells at all. When large numbers of these cells are linked together, the effects can be astonishing.

The electric eel is an amazing storage battery. It can send a jolt of as much as eight hundred volts of electricity through the water in which it lives. An electric house current is only one hundred twenty volts.) As many as four fifths of all the cells in the electric eel's body are specialized for generating electricity, and the strength of the shock it can deliver corresponds roughly to the length of its body.

What does the word HESITATE in the first paragraph mean?