Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Review Week 8
Review Week 8
Complete the sentences with words from the list. One or more words may not be used.
relationship participation potential technology edit
1. Eva spent many years traveling to different countries because she wanted to experience other
____________________.
2. You definitely have the ____________________ to do well in class if you study hard.
4. In the past, people only had dial-up Internet connections, but ____________________ improved and
now everyone has high-speed service.
5. Miguel and Rosa used to work together, but their ____________________ developed and now they’re
married!
6. The company is asking selected customers for their ____________________ in a product survey.
7. Ken struggles with group activities in class; he’s very shy and does not find it easy to
____________________ with others.
8. The ____________________ reported that the president had resigned, but now we know the story was
not true.
One example of this, he says, is television. When television became the dominant medium in the
1950s, it changed the way families interacted. Family members began to sit in front of the TV to watch
rather than face each other to talk. The people on the television spoke, and the TV viewers listened. In
this one-way type of communication, only the people on TV had power. Only they had a voice.
Wesch created and posted his own short video on YouTube. It has had more than 11 million views. The
video asks us to think about how we use and interact with the Internet. The Internet is no longer just
connecting people with information. It’s connecting people with people. It’s a way for us to share our
thoughts and ideas with the world. It wouldn’t exist without us. In fact, Wesch says, “the Web is us.”
According to Wesch, activities such as the role-play exercise help prepare students to be active and
responsible members of society. “I ask [students] to think not about what new media was designed
for,” he says, “but how they can [use] it for something else.” A great example, he believes, is social
media. It was created to help friends connect, but now it also allows people to share and collaborate on
projects.
Wesch understands that the new media can provide opportunities for sharing and participation.
However, he warns that online content can also be misleading. He believes it is important for
everyone, especially students, to understand the dangers of digital media and learn how to use it
wisely. In a traditional classroom, for example, the teacher is the main provider of information. Now,
information is available to anyone with an Internet connection—and anyone can provide new
information at any time. So one of the goals of education should be to prepare students to find,
analyze, and think critically about online information, as well as create their own.
Wesch says, “I want to believe that technology can help us see relationships and global connections in
positive new ways. It’s pretty amazing that I have this little box sitting on my desk through which I can
talk to any one of a billion people. And yet do any of us really use it for all the potential that’s there?”
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
9. What is the main idea of the passage?
a. how YouTube has become a popular video sharing site
b. how new media are changing the way people communicate
c. how Michael Wesch is changing traditional education
10. What does the author mean when he describes television as a “one-way type of communication” in the
2nd paragraph?
a. During the 1950s, TV was the dominant medium.
b. TV caused family members to stop facing each other.
c. TV viewers didn’t interact with the people on television.
11. What can we infer from Michael Wesch’s statement “the Web is us” in the 4th paragraph?
a. The Web connects people by enabling us to share our ideas.
b. We should think carefully about how we use the Web.
c. The Web has the power to connect people with information.
12. How did Wesch’s students benefit from the online role-play exercise in class?
a. They discovered what the new media were designed for.
b. They interacted with various members of society.
c. They learned about responsibility and global problems.
13. What does Wesch mean when he talks about the dangers of digital media?
a. There is too much new information online.
b. Don’t believe everything you read online.
c. Online content should only be provided by teachers.
Is our relationship with technology a good thing, or a bad thing? Can new media make a meaningful
difference in the world? Social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, have been dismissed by
some as distractions which are only good for wasting time rather than doing something useful.
However, this view has been challenged by a growing number of online campaigns1 which have used
the Internet and public participation to make important changes happen. Here is one of these success
stories.
In 2012, a major health site called LIVESTRONG.com posted recipes featuring meat from some
species of shark considered endangered or threatened. A woman named Alisa Schwartz was horrified
by this. On the social-networking site, Twitter, Alisa posted a message (called a tweet) saying that it
was wrong of LIVESTRONG.com to publish these recipes. What happened next demonstrates the true
potential of new media.
An online group named Upwell, which works to protect the oceans, saw Alisa’s tweet and posted a
petition2 urging LIVESTRONG.com to remove the shark recipes. Through the immediate
communication made possible by social networking sites, almost a thousand people had signed the
petition in less than one week. LIVESTRONG.com removed the recipes.
This proves that how you choose to interact with others online can make a very real difference. The
people at Upwell believe that a small group of thoughtful and well-connected citizens really can
change the world.
1
A campaign is a series of organized activities intended to achieve a particular goal.
2
A petition is a document signed by many people asking someone (usually someone official or in authority) to
do something.
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
14. Which of these statements would the author probably agree with?
a. Our relationship with technology is an unhealthy one.
b. Social networking sites are generally a waste of time.
c. We can use technology to make a meaningful difference.
d. Most people use social media sites for fun with their friends.
16. How did Alisa Schwartz react to the recipes on the LIVESTRONG.com site?
a. She was shocked by them.
b. She was curious about them.
c. She shared the recipes on Twitter.
d. She found some mistakes in them.
18. What can we infer about the number of people who signed the petition posted by Upwell?
a. Social media sites enable us to quickly share information.
b. Upwell has about a thousand members in its group.
c. Modern technology is not as useful as it could be.
d. Most people did not really care about the petition.
Complete the sentences with words from the list. One or more words may not be used.
virtual contact advertise posting voting
If you care about the future of our planet, we want to hear from you. Based in California, GreenThumb
is a new company with an old idea. By the year 2020, we believe that 60 percent of all Americans will
grow some of the food they eat, and we hope to help them. Our (A)__________ is simple: Stop buying
imported1 fruits and vegetables! We are using the Internet as a(n) (B) __________ to provide
information to anyone who wishes to grow their own produce.2 On our web site, people can visit the
(C) __________ garden we have designed, which includes lots of gardening advice and suggestions. If
they have questions, they can (D) __________ any of the experienced gardeners from all over the
country who (E) __________ their services on our site. So, what can you do to support us? Well, join
the thousands of (F) __________ aware people who are already (G) __________ on our Facebook
page and spreading the word about GreenThumb. Do something (H) __________ today and become
part of this project!
1
Imported items are things which are brought into your country from another country.
2
Produce is food that is grown, such as fruit and vegetables.
Internet Island
The Idea
On January 14, 2006, Ben Keene received an email that changed his life. The message was from his
friend Mark James. The subject line read: “A TRIBE IS WANTED.” Keene and James, both 26,
wanted to create an Internet start-up. Here was James’s new idea: We will create an online community
and call it a tribe. We will make decisions about rules with discussions and online voting. Then we will
do something that no one has ever done—our virtual tribe will become a real one. We will travel to a
remote island and form a partnership with a local tribe. We will build an environmentally friendly
community and share it with the world.
James’s idea came from social-networking websites, which got hundreds of millions of visitors a year.
People spent a lot of time online, but they spent most of that time posting messages and sharing music.
In James’s opinion, these sites could be used for so much more.
The Island
Keene liked the idea, and he and James named their website tribewanted.com. Then they began
looking for an island for their tribe. Around the same time, Tui Mali, the chief of a tribe in Fiji, wanted
jobs and money for his people. He owned a small island called Vorovoro. The main islands of Fiji were
becoming very modern, but Vorovoro was not.
On Vorovoro, a few people had cell phones or worked on one of the main islands, but most lived in
very small, simple homes with no electricity or running water. Tui Mali wanted to find someone to
develop his island. So he decided to advertise his island on the Internet. A few weeks later, Keene and
James contacted him. They agreed to pay $53,000 for a three-year lease of the island and $26,500 in
donations to the community. They also promised jobs for the local tribe members. “We are all excited
about Tribewanted,” Tui Mali told a local newspaper reporter. “It will provide us with work for the
next three years.” Tui Mali was happy to have the money, but he also trusted that Keene and James
would respect his culture.
For several weeks after the newcomers arrived, they worked with the local tribe members. They built
buildings, planted crops behind the village, set up non-polluting sources of energy, such as solar
power, and ate fresh fish from the ocean. As they worked together, they became friends. Eventually
they became one tribe.
Through the Internet, the tribe connected with almost a thousand people from all over the world. On
the island, it brought together groups of people from very different cultures. Keene and Tui believe the
new tribal connections will help the island to develop in a positive way. They hope the island will
become more modern, without losing its traditional culture.
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
31. How many new tribe members first traveled to the island?
a. 14
b. 17
c. 25
d. 59
32. Which of these did the new tribe members NOT do on Vorovoro?
a. become friends with the locals
b. improve the cell phone service
c. grow food and put up buildings
d. introduce solar power to the village
33. What can we infer from the final paragraph?
a. Membership to the online tribe is limited.
b. Visits to Vorovoro are no longer possible.
c. Financial donations are badly needed.
d. The project is an ongoing success.
Through social media, we’re used to connecting with people online; people who are near, far, and
everywhere in between. Our online social networks are usually made up of friends, family, and,
sometimes, strangers who share our interests. So, it’s no wonder that there’s a popular social-
networking site based exclusively around travel.
Travbuddy, as the name suggests, connects people who like to travel. (“Buddy” is an informal term for
a friend.) Travbuddy lets you share your travel stories with others through photographs, forums, blogs,
and interactive maps. It currently has about 1.7 million registered members and hundreds of thousands
of blogs and reviews.
When it comes to traveling, half of the fun can be in planning your journey: researching places to stay,
learning about the people, foods, and cultures you’ll encounter, and getting recommendations about the
best places to visit. Travbuddy has many resources for the planning phase of your trip, and it can also
help while you are actually traveling. Then, when your journey is over, you can support your fellow
travelers by sharing your experiences—both good and bad—on the site.
When we did a simple “buddy search” for Cordoba, Spain, we found eight members who live there
and six who will be traveling there soon. The site also gave us dozens of hotel reviews, photos, and 28
Cordoba-related travel blogs. This is an excellent way to connect with other travelers and it really
enables you to focus on the destinations that most interest you. You can also learn a lot about how
other people plan their trips and where they get their information.
Eric Bjorndahl founded the site in 2005 with his brother, David. “Many of the features we have today
are a direct result of community feedback,” says Eric, “Everyone on the site is a passionate and
committed traveler, which lends [the site] a very unique and positive feel.”
35. The key details of the passage illustrate how Travbuddy can help travelers.
37. Another word for “journey” (underlined) in the 1st line of the 3rd paragraph is “trip.”
38. Travbuddy helps to locate people to travel with you.
39. We can infer that Travbuddy relies on members’ participation and interaction.
Paragraph A
Formal paragraphs often have concluding sentences. A concluding sentence is the last sentence of a
paragraph. It ties the paragraph together. Concluding sentences can state an opinion (either the author’s
or a person mentioned in the paragraph), make a prediction, or ask a question for the reader to think
about.
Paragraph B
Thirty to forty percent of the things people say are focused on themselves. In fact, 80 percent of all
posts on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are self-centered. To determine why, researchers
at Harvard University performed brain scans on study participants to see how talking about themselves
compared to other types of conversation.
Paragraph C
If you have ever dreamed of a group cycling holiday in Africa, Tour d’Afrique is for you. On their
website, you can design your ideal trip. You set the costs for the number of riders as well as hotels and
food along the way. Tour d’Afrique checks to make sure all the details of your trip look possible, and
then they do something special.
Paragraph D
Back in 2004 and 2005, Ken Banks, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, was trying to find a
way for officials in South Africa’s Kruger National Park to update local communities on changes or
developments in the park. This proved to be a challenge because not many people had Internet
connections or even landline telephones. However, Banks realized that most people in communities
surrounding Kruger National Park had cell phones.
Paragraph E
The Internet has become an essential resource for purposes of recreation, business, and even politics.
But it has become a target of censorship and has also introduced problems of fraud. While 70 percent
of the U.S. population has Internet access, only 4 percent of Africans and 10 percent of Asians are
online.
Match the paragraphs with their correct concluding sentence. Not all paragraphs may be used.
a. Paragraph A
b. Paragraph B
c. Paragraph C
d. Paragraph D
e. Paragraph E
41. They give you the opportunity to use social media to convince your friends and family to join the
group tour. If you are successful, you could get to travel for free!
42. New bridges across this digital divide are essential if the Web is to truly become global.
43. They can also restate, or summarize, the main idea of a long or complex paragraph.
44. It turns out that sharing their own thoughts and feelings stimulated the same “pleasure regions” of the
brain that are activated by food!
45. He discovered that text messaging was an excellent way for organizations in underdeveloped countries
to interact when there were few other methods of communication available
The past three decades have shown a huge growth of computers and communications technology. This
so-called digital age has be built on a steady supply of new and more powerful devices and gadgets.
But how people use these items and what they demand from these technologies has evolved at an
equally remarkable rate. For example, the popularity of Web 2.0 and social networking sites has
surprising most people in the industry. And we have see how quickly the fourth-generation, or “4G”,
cell phone networks replaced the previous 3G standards.
Mark the word YES if the present perfect tense is used correctly in the paragraph. Mark the word NO
if it is not, and write the correct form on the line.
Choose ONE of the following topics and write a short paragraph about it.
A. Most people are excited about the ways in which social media have changed how we communicate.
However, others feel there are many negative aspects to these changes. What is your opinion? Write a
short paragraph. Remember to include a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding sentence.
B. Would you like to be a member of tribewanted.com and spend time on a small island like Vorovoro?
Say why or why not, supporting your opinion with examples.