Nec Mock test - hội đồng thi Unilish - test 2

HỘI ĐỒNG THI UNILISH THE UNITEST SERIES TEST 2 Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH
Thời gian thi: 180 phút (không kể thời gian ra đề) Ngày thi: 21/08/2021 (Đề thi gồm 18 trang)
Thí sinh không được sử dụng tài liệu, kể cả từ điển
Giám thị không giải thích gì thêm
1. Technologically supported, super shoes help reduce the risk of injuries in long-distance running.
2. Eliud Kipchoge is the first man to break the 2-hour barrier in an official competition.
3. Female marathon runners have their time improved by more than 2 seconds by super shoes.
4. The use of super shoes creates intense competition among sports manufacturers in the production of
performance-enhancing apparel.
5. The 40-millimeter carbon fiber plate of scoop design enables athletes to propel forward without losing considerable momentum.
6. There is a special department of World Athletics responsible for the checking and evaluation of athletes’ sportswear. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
7. What, besides COVID-19 infections, has increased since January 16th?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
8. How many people were admitted to the hospital during January’s record high?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
9. What have some American cities and counties reinstated after loosening pandemic restrictions?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
10. What are all governmental workforce and military personnel required to do against the pandemic,
apart from periodic clinical trials?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
11. What is currently to blame for most of the COVID-19 cases in the U.S?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Page 1-Unilish
12. What did a majority of infected patients who were previously vaccinated have in common with their
infected but unvaccinated counterparts?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
John’s first experience of diving involved putting a __________ around his body.
He says that years ago, diving could be compared with __________.
The diving equipment he had in the Army has previously been used for __________.
John's worst mistake happened when he was trying to recover a very old __________.
When he got to the surface on that occasion, he had problems with his lungs and his __________.
Laurel Hubbard is competing in the Olympics Games as __________. Having met
__________ standards, she is allowed to participate in the Games. A relatively
__________ athlete, Hubbard finished second in the 2017 World Championships. New Zealander officials are
__________ of the sensitive balance between the rights of athletes and fairness in sports. Hubbard claimed that she was
__________ and thankful to be an Olympian.
The participation of Hubbard sparks more
__________ in the sports circuit. There have been
__________ from Hubbard’s rivals as to advantages of transgender athletes.
Despite controversies, New Zealanders are still
__________ their compatriots, including Hubbard.
26. The cutting or replacement of trees downtown _____ certain threat to the ozone layer of late. A. have posed B. has posed C. poses D. pose
27. It is imperative that the company _____ technology into the recruitment process. A. incorporated
B. incorporates C. incorporate D. be incorporated
28. What _____ at 8 o’clock last night? I phoned you but couldn’t get through to you. A. were you doing B. did you do C. had you done D. could you do
29. _____, the committee reached the final consensus.
A. Due to serving the scrumptious feast
B. As they are served the delicious dinner
C. Having served the lavish meal
D. Having been served the palatable repast
30. The man felt under the _____ to hear that he had been dismissed by his employer. A. gun B. lash C. knife D. weather
31. The ruler displayed at the museum is believed to be as _____ as a ramrod. A. fierce B. stiff C. strong D. rigid
32. The tear-stained girl remains _____ in love to wait for her boyfriend returning from the army. A. sordid B. incandescent C. steadfast D. tortuous
33. It is such a _____ day that even the big-headed dog is cheerful. A. clement B. indignant C. indolent D. wayward
34. He inherited a colossal _____ of $135,000 when his father passed away. A. ordeal B. trudge C. epic D. bequest Page 2-Unilish
35. The moneyed, _____ woman started to belittle all the works of the volunteers because of their hypocrisy she deemed. A. hurly-burly
B. higgledy-piggledy C. hoity-toity D. hunky-dory
36. Reductions in carbon footprint could help _____ global warming. A. dwindle B. retard C. withhold D. waver
37. She _____ a grudge against her uncle because she witnessed he had killed her mother. A. portrayed B. shattered C. scattered D. harboured
38. The car has been designed to _____ to Japanese safety requirements. A. conform B. obey C. comply D. adhere
39. Over-exposure to the sun makes his weather-beaten complexion become _____. A. tarnished B. pristine C. sul en D. swarthy
40. She found the book absolutely _____ and unputdownable. A. nailing B. unfastening C. riveting D. pinning
41. It is relatively easy for newcomers to pick off the most _____ lucrative business and ignore the rest. A. exponential y B. utterly C. discernably D. potentially
42. You should bring a(n) _____ suitcase because the business trip wil last about a fortnight. A. salutary B. capacious C. cantankerous D. overt
43. There had been a(n) _____ silence before he sparked off a blazing row. A. ominous B. lethargic C. discordant D. exposing
44. We view future developments with some _____. A. depravity B. distortion C. vexation D. euphoria
45. The African struck a _____ against Apartheid policy and for freedom. A. chord B. deal C. blow D. string 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. Around 250,000 _____ have not paid the tax.
47. As the main actor was afflicted, the
_____ had to replace him to finish the movie.
48. The marriage was annul ed on grounds of _____. 49. To add
_____, the stage is covered with sand for the desert scenes. 50. Any case of
_____ should be monitored during the delivery episode in case it causes obstruction. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50.
What is the proper role of a designer? Some have suggested that designers differ from
engineers in that an engineer, although he or she might proceed intuitively, prefers to test and test,
whereas a designer is entirely happy with intuitive judgments. But, unlike an engineer, a designer is
not responsible for the structural failure of the product. This is not to imply that only engineers Page 3-Unilish
have responsibility for malfunction. Designers have a share of responsibility, especially in the design of the human/machine
_______ - can this machine be operated safely at all times,
are the switches, dials, levers or handles in the right place for a human to use effortlessly? The disciplines of
_______ and product semantics are the disciplines of the designer’s responsibility to the user.
The designer-to-manufacture-to-sales-to-user process is a _______. Between
‘a designer’ and ‘a production line’ there are many interpreters. These individuals, together with
other specialists such as marketing experts, exist to get an idea into reality and also to filter out as
many uncertainties as possible before a design goes into production. Many modern designs,
especially ones we consider domestic consumer goods, office equipment, power tools automobiles
and aircraft, are not the fruits of one individual’s mind, even if it can be beneficial from a marketing
point of view to play up a single designer’s name as a signature that gives the product a
_______ in the same way that a painter signs his or her canvas. In relatively simple, fabricated,
_______ objects, such as printed textiles or tableware, or furniture, a single
designer can claim responsibility for the design of the whole product. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55.
During the 7th B.C, Greece began to experience major social
_____. A large divide between the aristocracy and general
_____ developed. Economic, political and social conflict became
_____ More and more average citizens refused to place their trust in their wealthy leaders. The noble
class even began to fight among themselves. Therefore, the poor citizens began to look for an alternative
_____ They desperately wanted a new kind of leader who would take care of their needs and
challenge the aristocracy. Before long, a new ruler known as the tyrant began to come to _____ in
various city-states in ancient Greece, forming a new type of government cal ed a tyranny. Tyranny did
not only fil a political void and
_____ the middle and lower classes in ancient Greece. It also became a
_____stone for more developed forms of government. The _____of laws became another
important consequence of tyranny. As more laws became recorded, a new sense of equality between people became
_____. In Athens, this eventually developed into the democratic spirit which
influenced the form of government to fol ow tyranny. Around 510 B.C, Athens became the first political
_____to ever be ruled by a democratic government. 56.
A. ineptitude B. impenetrability C. unrest D. unreality 57. A. folklore B. populace C. members D. public 58.
A. commonplace B. ever-present C. everlasting D. popular 59. A. figurehead B. dictator C. community D. despot 60. A. use B. grief C. life D. power 61. A. bolster B. burden C. bespeak D. besiege 62. A. corner B. stepping C. cliff D. main 63.
A. acclimatization B. codification C. modification D. accolade Page 4-Unilish 64. A. real B. realistic C. realized D. real-time 65. A. gentility B. entity C. utility D. modernity 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. Tone can be described as the
_______ of a written text. If you were reading the text aloud,
how would it sound? When someone is speaking, their facial
_______, actions and the quality of their
voice (volume, speed of delivery) al
_______ to indicate the speaker’s attitude and help convey their
message. In a film, the director wil often advise the actor of the tone of voice to adopt, and may, for
example, draw on music or lighting to convey mood or
_______ of emotion. In a written text, the
language must portray the tone and give the piece its emotional ‘flavour’, although sometimes tone can
be read from the response of other characters. When you create your own texts, try reading your work
aloud in different tones and decide whether your reader wil need some indication of how to _______
the tone you intend. The way writers group their words and where they place _______ determines
the tone. Many words have positive or negative connotations which will affect the readers _______
reaction to the writing, so word selection is very important when trying to convey a _______ tone.
The emotional tone of a text can range from neutral to
_______ emotive. A shorter text may have a
single, consistent tone al the
_______ through, but the creators of most texts employ a range of different tones. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75.
The Painting Fool is one of a growing number of computer programs which, so their makers
claim, possess creative talents. Classical music by an artificial composer has had audiences enraptured,
and even tricked them into believing a human was behind the score. Artworks painted by a robot have
sold for thousands of dollars and been hung in prestigious gal eries. And software has been built which
creates areas that could not have been imagined by the programmer.
Human beings are the only species to perform sophisticated creative acts regularly. If we can break this
process down into computer code, where does that leave human creativity? ‘This is a question at the
very core of humanity,’ says Geraint Wiggins, a computational creativity researcher at Goldsmiths,
University of London. ‘It scares a lot of people. They are worried that it is taking something special away
from what it means to be human.’ Page 5-Unilish
To some extent, we are al familiar with computerised art. The question is: where does the work of
the artist stop and the creativity of the computer begin? Consider one of the oldest machine artists, Aaron,
a robot that has had paintings exhibited in London’s Tate Modern and the San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art. Aaron can pick up a paintbrush and paint on canvas on its own. Impressive perhaps, but it is
stil little more than a tool to realise the programmer’s own creative ideas.
Simon Colton, the designer of the Painting Fool, is keen to make sure his creation doesn’t attract
the same criticism. Unlike earlier ‘artists’ such as Aaron, the Painting Fool only needs minimal direction
and can come up with its own concepts by going online for material. The software runs its own web
searches and trawls through social media sites. It is now beginning to display a kind of imagination too,
creating pictures from scratch. One of its original works is a series of fuzzy landscapes, depicting trees
and sky. While some might say they have a mechanical look, Colton argues that such reactions arise from
people’s double standards towards software-produced and human-produced art. After al , he says,
consider that the Painting Fool painted the landscapes without referring to a photo. ‘If a child painted a
new scene from its head, you’d say it has a certain level of imagination,’ he points out. ‘The same should
be true of a machine.’ Software bugs can also lead to unexpected results. Some of the Painting Fool’s
paintings of a chair came out in black and white, thanks to a technical glitch. This gives the work an
eerie, ghostlike quality. Human artists like the renowned Ellsworth Kel y are lauded for limiting their
colour palette – so why should computers be any different?
Researchers like Colton don’t believe it is right to measure machine creativity directly to that of
humans who ‘have had mil ennia to develop our skills’. Others, though, are fascinated by the prospect
that a computer might create something as original and subtle as our best artists. So far, only one has
come close. Composer David Cope invented a program called Experiments in Musical Intel igence, or
EMI. Not only did EMI create compositions in Cope’s style, but also that of the most revered classical
composers, including Bach, Chopin and Mozart. Audiences were moved to tears, and EMI even fooled
classical music experts into thinking they were hearing genuine Bach. Not everyone was impressed
however. Some, such as Wiggins, have blasted Cope’s work as pseudoscience, and condemned him for
his deliberately vague explanation of how the software worked. Meanwhile, Douglas Hofstadter of
Indiana University said EMI created replicas which stil rely completely on the original artist’s creative
impulses. When audiences found out the truth they were often outraged with Cope, and one music lover
even tried to punch him. Amid such controversy, Cope destroyed EMI’s vital databases.
But why did so many people love the music, yet recoil when the discovered how it was
composed? A study by computer scientist David Moffat of Glasgow Caledonian University provides a
clue. He asked both expert musicians and non-experts to assess six compositions. The participants
weren’t told beforehand whether the tunes were composed by humans or computers, but were asked to
guess, and then rate how much they liked each one. People who thought the composer was a computer
tended to dislike the piece more than those who believed it was human. This was true even among the
experts, who might have been expected to be more objective in their analyses.
Where does this prejudice come from? Paul Bloom of Yale University has a suggestion: he
reckons part of the pleasure we get from art stems from the creative process behind the work. This can
give it an ‘irresistible essence’, says Bloom. Meanwhile, experiments by Justin Kruger of New York
University have shown that people’s enjoyment of an artwork increases if they think more time and
effort was needed to create it. Similarly, Colton thinks that when people experience art, they wonder
what the artist might have been thinking or what the artist is trying to tel them. It seems obvious, Page 6-Unilish
therefore, that with computers producing art, this speculation is cut short – there’s nothing to explore.
But as technology becomes increasingly complex, finding those greater depths in computer art could
become possible. This is precisely why Colton asks the Painting Fool to tap into online social networks
for its inspiration: hopeful y this way it will choose themes that will already be meaningful to us.
A. They have had more success in some artistic genres than in others.
B. The advances are not as significant as the public believes them to be.
C. People’s acceptance of them can vary considerably.
D. A great deal of progress has already been attained in this field.
A. It will lead to a deterioration in human ability.
B. It undermines a fundamental human quality.
C. It may ultimately supersede human art.
D. It is aesthetical y inferior to human art.
A. public response to its work
B. the technical standard of its output
C. its programmer’s background
D. the source of its subject matter
A. The same concepts of creativity should not be applied to all forms of art.
B. Software-produced art is often dismissed as childish and simplistic.
C. People tend to judge computer art and human art according to different criteria.
D. It is unreasonable to expect a machine to be as imaginative as a human being.
A. highlights the technical limitations of the software.
B. achieves a particularly striking effect.
C. exhibits a certain level of genuine artistic skil .
D. closely resembles that of a well-known artist. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80.
81. Simon Colton says it is important to consider the long-term view when
82. David Cope’s EMI software surprised people by
83. Geraint Wiggins criticized Cope for not
84. Douglas Hofstadter claimed that EMI was
85. Audiences who had listened to EMI’s music became angry after
knowing whether it was the work of humans or software.
producing work entirely dependent on the imagination of its creator.
revealing the technical details of his program.
generating work that was virtual y indistinguishable from that of humans. Page 7-Unilish
comparing the artistic achievements of humans and computers.
discovering that it was the product of a computer program
persuading the public to appreciate computer art. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. .
if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
86. Moffat’s research may help explain people’s reactions to EMI.
87. The non-experts in Moffat’s study all responded in a predictable way.
88. Justin Kruger’s findings cast doubt on Paul Bloom’s theory about people’s prejudice towards computer art. 86. 87. 88.
It's Saturday morning in Hackney Wick, east London, and apart from a mechanic deep in the bowels of
a truck, the only sign of life among the smal factories on a backstreet is a whine of machinery from an
upper window -work has begun at Bamboo Bike Club, Britain's only bamboo bike-building course. I've
gone along to watch the action.
There's a sense of energy and industry. And fun. Woodwork class was never like this. Bamboo is one of
the most interesting trends to emerge in bike construction. Names like Californian manufacturer Calfee
Design or Yorkshire's Bamboo Bikes have revived a construction method pioneered as early as 1894.
The problem for most cyclists is the price. A ready-made bamboo frame from these companies’ retails for $2,995, or £1,868. Page 8-Unilish
Only after they had refined their research into a marketable product - James now tosses out phrases like
'close-noded thick-wal tubes' while talking about bamboo - did they realise they were on the wrong
track. “We realised we didn't want just to sel frames. We wanted to share the joy of making something;
the craft of creating something unique and sustainable,” James explains.
The question for me, a king of the botch job-my terrible handiwork failures litters my house -was
about quality. On day one, the boys explain how to select bamboo for strength and how to form strong
joints before tubes are glued lightly in place in the workshop: first the front triangle is composed of 40
mm diameter bamboo; then the thinner, more fiddly seat and the chain assembly. Alloy tubes are
inserted for the handlebars, wheel forks and other parts which require the strength and precise
engineering impossible in bamboo.
James and Ian buzz cheerful y between workbenches, supervising every cut, triple-checking every joint,
and wil take over if a task seems insurmountable. The self-build is half the attraction for most
participants; it may be no coincidence that al those on this course were engineers. For the rest of us, Ian
reassures that everyone messes up once or twice.
Sunday is a more relaxed day, mainly spent building the lugs. Or rather, wraps: hemp bindings wrapped
around the joints and dropouts then glued with epoxy resin to form a strong bond that disperses loads
evenly throughout the frame. With a final polymer coating for waterproofing, the bike is ready for
wheels, brakes, gears, saddle and any other individual touches. And it is a bike built for the long haul,
just as strong, the pair claim, as its metal equivalents.
Technical issues aside, how good does a bamboo bike look? Somewhat scruffy alongside professional
frames, it turns out -the hemp weave can look a bit like parcel tape, for example. But there's no denying
their individuality and that, say James and Ian, is the point.
They also cycle well. I take James's bike for a spin and the ride is light, stiff and smooth thanks to
bamboo's ability to dampen vibration. Impressive, considering I target every pothole. 'Some people love
the build, but for me these workshops come together when the bike is on the road,' James says. 'They're Page 9-Unilish
so light, so effortless to ride. So much fun to ride too -take a Harley-style retro bike, add 10 and you're
stil not close.' And the price? Less than £500.
Al this, together with the technical skil involved. in using jigs, power tools and design blueprints, is a
leap of faith for someone whose idea of DIY is flatpack furniture assembly. Accurate cutting for a clean
joint can be tricky, for example.
Personal y though, I believe that any bicycle made from this kind of material should be a relaxed
affair, something for cruising sedately around on rather than racing. I therefore plump for a frame that
avoids the stiff angularity of my existing metal machine: a 'Classic English' giving a gentle, easy- going ride.
Frames have been set up for the three custom bikes under construction. Bamboo has been selected
from a stockpile. Now crossbars and seatposts are being cut according to the lengths specified on each design's blueprint.
No problem - just get another piece and have another go. Such is the benefit of bamboo. Each length
has been pre-checked for quality, so you get to indulge in frame aesthetics: plain bamboo, black or mottled.
If Calfee and their likes are safe, middle-of-the-road rock, then Bamboo Bike Club are the punks, the
rebels; less up against the big names than creating bikes that embody the DIY spirit and that wil
engender more passion than the average factory line model.
It was this, plus the design chal enge, that led James and Ian to spend years cooped up in a shed in
Brecon, Wales. Their idea was to establish a boutique bamboo bike business with products within reach of the average cyclist.
Ian has ridden his for over a year on a 16-mile commute, while James has failed to destroy one bike
off-road over three months of testing. 'To be honest, our bikes are over-engineered - we use larger
diameter tubes and over-thick bindings - but I prefer it like that,' James says. Page 10-Unilish
The outcome was something more community than company, and as such, the Bamboo Bike Club is
stil an occupation sandwiched between full-time jobs - James makes wind turbines and Ian is a civil
engineer. But they seem to be on the right track, with monthly courses whose competitive price buys
you a computer-designed custom bike frame plus a fun weekend of bike-building.
No one can claim such mastery of the fantasy blockbuster sound as British film music composer
John Wil iams. It's a style of music he did much to define in Star Wars and then for many other films for
the director Steven Spielberg. There are distinctive melodies which give the feeling of flying, snatches of
music to represent different characters, and
il ustrative details. In addition, everything fol ows
the symphonic style of a hundred years ago. It's what the film industry in Hol ywood wants, it's what
John Williams supplies, and what audiences everywhere expect.
Can we call it art, or is it simply an interesting artefact, a sort of factory product? For the cinema-
goer sitting with a popcorn bag the question doesn't arise. But since film music now spreads to a
different audience far outside cinemas, on lavishly promoted soundtrack CDs and serious concert
platforms, it may be interesting to answer the question.
Composers themselves have expressed very diverse opinions. Interviewed some years ago,
Wil iams himself proudly referred to film music as 'the opera of the 20th century'. On the other hand,
Richard Rodney Bennett, the composer of the music for the film Murder on the Orient Express, declared
that 'in writing film music one is real y using only a sixth of one's musical mind'. Everyone agrees on one
point though: the rewards are pleasingly high. There are royalties. And if you hit the right buttons you
can spin off into the lucrative sideline of a concert career, regularly mounting live performances of film compositions.
But if you consider the working conditions that composers put up with,
. First of all, film music is composed in snippets,
timed to the second, and written after the film is shot. Then there are insane deadlines - like having five
days to compose 50 minutes of music. Next, the composer has to live with the fact that he/she wields no
artistic control. Final y, the ultimate insult is that what is written struggles to get itself noticed against a
background of dialogue, squeals, and every possible visual delight from cartoon character Shrek's green
body to actor Tom Cruise's chin. It can't be art, can it?
But think of the German composer Bach in the eighteenth century, satisfying his employers by
writing one cantata a week. Few composers can write without a commission. And for the true artist,
rules and restrictions stimulate. Film scoring can sharpen a composer's technique, encourage
experimentation. The composer Vaughan Wil iams was never quite the same again after his work on the
film Scott of the Antarctic caused him to branch into percussion instruments as a way of capturing a frozen landscape.
Film music can be art then, and has been, in fits and starts. The frustrating thing is that many film
producers have limited expectations of what film music can be. Once the age of silent movies was over
and talkies arrived, music became an integral part of the projected film and anything was possible. Music Page 11-Unilish
didn't have to be poured over the images like mayonnaise; it could argue with them, them with
irony, or rudely interrupt. In Europe, various composers such as Shostakovich and HannsEisler
experimented with timbre and form, showing Hollywood (at the time stil stuck with the sounds of a late
nineteenth-century symphony orchestra beavering away) that innovative techniques were possible.
But even in Hollywood, art raised its head. Al film composers look up to Bernard Herrmann, a
giant who coloured each score with a different sound and let his music snake through the images in
unconventional ways. The power of the film Vertigo lies not only in the director's images but in
Herrmann's worried woodwind and turbulent strings and the weird harp solos that dog the characters'
footsteps. His scores are usual y so interwoven with their films that it's a futile task trying to carve the
music into selections for concert use. Herrmann proves that it's even possible to write film scores in
bulk without hurtling into an artistic decline.
So, what's my conclusion? Art or factory product? Both in fact, although there's rather more of
the factory product than I would like at times.
A. It is similar to that produced by other composers.
В. It is too old-fashioned to remain popular for long.
С. It has a better reputation in Hol ywood than elsewhere.
D. It has certain characteristics that are easy to identify. A. elaborate B. perplexing C. myriad D. diverse
A. They are only interested in it if they can purchase the CD.
В. They perceive it as being mass-produced.
С. They are not concerned about whether it has artistic merit.
D. They feel music is an important part of the cinema experience.
A. They consider that it is a worthy outlet for their talents.
В. They appreciate the financial gains they make from it.
С. They need it to supplement their main source of income.
D. They can use it as a way into an alternative career.
A. The music has to be composed after the film is completed.
В. The deadlines set for the composer cannot be achieved.
С. The music has to compete for attention with other elements of the film.
D. The composer has no control over how the music is used.
A. Film music is not at al to everyone’s taste.
B. People who opine that film music is not truly a form of art should rethink.
C. Film music is condemned for its superficiality.
D. On the surface, film music does not seem like a form of art.
A. some composers work better under pressure. Page 12-Unilish
В. composers have unreasonable demands imposed on them.
С. composers must aim to please their employers.
D. al composers need some sort of sponsorship.
A. It used less wel -known symphony orchestras than before.
В. It did not constitute a major part of the final production.
С. It didn't generally make use of new ideas.
D. It was not considered to make an artistic contribution to the film. A. discredit B. disparage C. eliminate D. upgrade
A. It is of high quality because he composed very little.
В. It has a distinctive style which evokes the animal world.
С. It is total y integrated with the visual element of the film.
D. It has considerable potential for concert performance. Your answers: 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105.
Since my goal was to spend the summer living in the forest of the Mbendjele pygmies, I decided that I
needed to learn Lingala - the trade language that emerged in the 19th century as the lingua franca of the
Congo Basin. And yet when I went online in search of Lingala resources, the only one I could find was a
textbook from 1963 and a scanned copy of a 1,109-word Lingala-English dictionary. Which is how I
ended up at Memrise, an online learning company which aims to help anyone learn anything.
The company encourages you to create a mnemonic, or mem, for every word you want to learn. A mem
could be a rhyme, an image, video or just a note about the word’s etymology, or something striking
about its pronunciation. It was up to me to come up with my own mems for each word in the dictionary.
For example, “engine” is “motele” in Lingala. When I learned that word, I took a second to visualize a
rusty engine revving in a motel room. It's a cheap motel room I stayed in one time on a road trip. I made
an effort to see, hear and even smell that experience of an oily machine revving and rattling on the stained carpet floor.
This al sounds a little silly, it is. But that's also the point. Studies have confirmed what Cicero and the
other ancient writers on memory knew well: the stranger the imagery, the more markedly memorable.
The app refers to the words you're trying to learn as "seeds". Each time you revise a given word, you
"water" it in your "greenhouse" until it has ful y sprouted and been consolidated in your long-term memory "garden". Page 13-Unilish
My own pattern of using the app worked like this: each morning there would be a message waiting in
my inbox, prodding me to water a few of my memories that were in danger of wilting, and so I would
dutifully log in and spend a few minutes revising words I had learned days or sometimes weeks earlier.
Sometime mid-morning, I'd log back in and get a new bundle of seeds to start watering.
After two and a half months of this routine, I'd not only planted my way through the entire Lingala
dictionary, but also watered al of my mems to the point where they were secure in my long-term
memory garden. Yet I had only clocked 22 hours and 15 minutes learning vocabulary on Memrise,
spread out over 10 weeks. In other words, it took a little less than one ful day, over two and a half
months, to memorise the entire dictionary. But did it work?
It took me almost a week by plane, truck and ferry to get to the Mbendjele village of Makao. For
several days, I was stuck in a village called Bomassa, while I waited for a truck. It was frustrating and I
couldn't believe it, but it gave me an opportunity to begin to test my Lingala with the locals.
On my third day in town, a pygmy named Makoti came to visit me early in the morning. "Yo na ngal,
totambola na zamba" - "You and me, let's walk in the forest," he said. This was my first conversation in
Lingala without a translator at my side. Even though I had to keep tel ing him, "Malembe, malembe" -
"Slow down, slow down" - I realized I was understanding quite a bit of what he was tel ing me and that
my drilling with Memrise had given me a far better grounding than I had thought possible. Then a
thought occurred to Makoti, which I was surprised had taken him so long to express. "Wapi oyekolaka
Lingala?" - "Where did you learn Lingala?" I did my best to tel him about the Internet, about my
computer, about Memrise, but once again my language skills weren't quite up to the scratch so instead, I
held out my hand to shake his and told him he should let his wife know that he'd be traveling with me to
Makao. As for explaining Memrise, that conversation would have to wait for a little more fluency.
feel skeptical with the validity of a technique? 106. _____
suggest that he is taken aback by the lack of material on a subject? 107. _____
describe his first experiences communicating with Lingala? 108. _____
explain the logic behind an unusual learning technique? 109. _____
describe a novel approach to memorizing vocabulary? 110. _____
express surprise at the amount of time that an activity had taken? 111. _____
reflect on how the responsibility is placed on the learner from the beginning? 112. _____
discuss an unusual method that a piece of software uses for teaching? 113. _____
make an effort in explaining how he had acquired his linguistic abilities? 114. _____
exemplify how Memrise fits into a daily routine with personal experiences? 115. _____ Page 14-Unilish