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Reading Passage 1
Networking
Networking as a concept has
acquired what is in all truth an unjustified air
of
modernity. It is considered in the
corporate world as an essential tool for the
modern businessperson, as they trot
round the globe drumming up business
for themselves or a corporation. The
concept is worn like a badge of distinction,
and not just in the business world.
People
can
be
divided
basically
into
those
who
keep
knowledge
and
their
personal contacts to themselves, and
those who are prepared to share what
they know and indeed their friends with
others. A person who is insecure, for
example
someone
who
finds
it
difficult
to
share
information
with
others
and
who
is
unable
to
bring
people,
including
friends,
together
does
not
make
a
good
networker.
The
classic
networker
is
someone
who
is
strong
enough
within themselves to connect different
people including close friends with each
other. For example, a businessman or an
academic may meet someone who
is likely
to be a valuable contact in the future, but at the
moment that person
may benefit from
meeting another associate or friend.
It
takes
quite
a
secure
person
to
bring
these
people
together
and
allow
a
relationship
to
develop
independently
of
himself.
From
the
non-networker's
point
of
view
such
a
development
may
be
intolerable,
especially
if
it
is
happening outside their
control. The unfortunate thing here is that the
initiator
of the contact, if he did but
know it, would be the one to benefit most. And
why?
Because all things being equal,
people move within circles and that person has
the potential of being sucked into ever
growing spheres of new contacts. It is
said that, if you know eight people,
you are in touch with everyone in the world.
It does not take much common sense to
realize the potential for any kind of
venture as one is able to draw on the
experience of more and more people.
Unfortunately,
making
new
contacts,
business
or
otherwise,
while
it
brings
success,
does
cause
problems.
It
enlarges
the
individual's
world.
This
is
in
truth
not
altogether
a
bad
thing,
but
it
puts
more
pressure
on
the
networker
through
his
having
to
maintain
an
ever
larger
circle
of
people.
The
most
convenient
way
out
is,
perhaps,
to
cull
old
contacts,
but
this
would
be
anathema to our networker as it would
defeat the whole purpose of networking.
Another problem is the reaction of
friends and associates. Spreading oneself
thinly gives one less time for others
who were perhaps closer to one in the past.
In
the
workplace,
this
can
cause
tension
with
jealous
colleagues,
and
even
with
superiors
who
might
be
tempted
to
rein
in
a
more
successful
inferior.
Jealousy and envy
can prove to be very detrimental if one is faced
with a very
insecure manager, as this
person may seek to stifle someone's career or even
block it completely.
The
answer here is to let one's superiors share in the
glory; to throw them a
few crumbs of
comfort. It is called leadership from the bottom.
In the present
business
climate,
companies
and
enterprises
need
to
co-
operate
with
each
other in order to expand. As
globalization grows apace, companies need to be
able to span not just countries but
continents. Whilst people may rail against
this development it is for the moment
here to stay. Without co-operation and
contacts, specialist companies will not
survive for long. Computer components,
for example, need to be compatible with
the various machines on the market
and
to achieve this, firms need to work in conjunction
with others. No business
or institution
can afford to be an island in today's environment.
In the not very
distant past, it was
possible for companies to go it alone, but it is
now more
difficult to do so.
The
same
applies
in
the
academic
world,
where
ideas
have
been
jealously
guarded. The
opening-up of universities and colleges to the
outside world in
recent
years
has
been
of
enormous
benefit
to
industry
and
educational
institutions.
The
stereotypical
academic
is
one
who
moves
in
a
rarefied
atmosphere living a life of sometimes
splendid isolation, a prisoner of their own
genius.
This
sort
of
person
does
not
fit
easily
into
the
mould
of
the
modern
networker. Yet even this insular world
is changing. The ivory towers are being
left ever more frequently as
educational experts forge links with other bodies;
sometimes
to
stunning
effect
as
in
Silicon
Valley
in
America
and
around
Cambridge in England, which now has one
of the most concentrated clusters
of
high tech companies in Europe.
It is
the networkers, the wheeler-dealers, the movers
and shakers, call them
what you will,
that carry the world along. The world of the
Neanderthals was
shaken
between
35,000
and
40,000
BC;
they
were
superseded
by
Homo
Sapiens with the very
'networking' skills that separate us from other
animals:
understanding, thought
abstraction and culture, which are inextricably
linked to
planning survival and
productivity in humans. It is said the meek will
inherit the
earth. But will they?
Questions 1-5
Do the following statements
agree with the information given in
Reading Passage 1
?
In boxes 11-13 on your
answer sheet, write
YES
NO
NOT GIVEN
if the
statement agrees with the writer's
claims
if the statement
contradicts the writer's claims
if there is impossible to say what the
writer thinks about this
Answer
Yes
Example
Networking is a concept
1
Networking is not a modern
idea.
2
Networking is worn
like a badge exclusively in the business world.
3
People fall into two basic
categories.
4
A person who
shares knowledge and friends makes a better
networker than one who
does not.
5
The classic networker is
physically strong and generally in good health.
Questions 6-10
Using
NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS
from the passage, complete the
sentences
below.
6
Making new acquaintances <
/p>
........................................
but also has its disadvantages.
7
At work, problems can be
caused if the manager is
..............
..........................
.
8
A
manager
can
suppress,
or
even
totally
....
....................................
the
career
of
an
employee.
9
In
business today, working together is necessary in
order for
..............................
..........
to
grow.
10
Businesses that
specialize will not last for long without
< br>........................................
.
Questions 11-15
Using
NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS
from the passage, complete the
sentences
below.
11
In which sphere of life
have ideas been protected jealously?
12
Which type of individual
does not easily become a modern networker?
13
Where is one of the
greatest concentrations of high tech companies in
Europe?
14
Who replaced the
Neanderthals?
15
What,
as
well
as
understanding
and
thought
abstraction,
sets
us
apart
from
other
animals?
Reading Passage 2
A SILENT FORCE
A
There
is
a
legend
that
St
Augustine
in
the
fourth
century
AD
was
the
first
individual to be seen reading silently
rather than aloud, or semi-aloud, as had
been
the
practice
hitherto.
Reading
has
come
a
long
way
since
Augustine's
day. There was a
time when it was a menial job of scribes and
priests, not the
mark of civilization
it became in Europe during the Renaissance when it
was
seen as one of the attributes of
the civilized individual.
B
Modern nations are now seriously
affected by their levels of literacy. While the
Western
world
has
seen
a
noticeable
decline
in
these
areas,
other
less
developed countries have advanced and,
in some cases, overtaken the West.
India, for example, now has a large
pool of educated workers. So European
countries can no longer rest on their
laurels as they have done for far too long;
otherwise, they are in danger of
falling even further behind economically.
C
It is difficult
in the modern world to do anything other than a
basic job without
being
able
to
read.
Reading
as
a
skill
is
the
key
to
an
educated
workforce,
which
in
turn
is
the
bedrock
of
economic
advancement,
particularly
in
the
present technological
age. Studies have shown that by increasing the
literacy
and
numeracy
skills
of
primary
school
children
in
the
UK,
the
benefit
to
the
economy generally is in
billions of pounds. The skill of reading is now no
more
just an intellectual or leisure
activity, but rather a fully-fledged economic
force.
D
Part of
the problem with reading is that it is a skill
which is not appreciated in
most
developed
societies.
This
is
an
attitude
that
has
condemned
large
swathes
of
the
population
in
most
Western
nations
to
illiteracy.
It
might
surprise
people
in
countries
outside
the
West
to
learn
that
in
the
United
Kingdom, and indeed in some other
European countries, the literacy rate has
fallen to below that of so-called less
developed countries.
E
There are also forces conspiring
against reading in our modern society. It is
not seen as cool among a younger
generation more at home with computer
screens or a Walkman. The solitude of
reading is not very appealing. Students
at school, college or university who
read a lot are called bookworms. The term
indicates the contempt in which reading
and learning are held in certain circles
or subcultures. It is a criticism, like
all such attacks, driven by the insecurity of
those who are not literate or are semi-
literate. Criticism is also a means, like all
bullying, of keeping peers in place so
that they do not step out of line. Peer
pressure among young people is so
powerful that it often kills any attempts to
change attitudes to habits like
reading.
F
But
the
negative
connotations
apart,
is
modern
Western
society
standing
Canute-like against an uncontrollable
spiral of decline? I think not.
G
How
should
people
be
encouraged
to
read
more?
It
can
easily
be
done
by
increasing basic reading skills at an
early age and encouraging young people
to borrow books from schools. Some
schools have classroom libraries as well
as
school
libraries.
It
is
no
good
waiting
until
pupils
are
in
their
secondary
school to
encourage an interest in books; it needs to be
pushed at an early age.
Reading comics,
magazines and low brow publications like Mills and
Boon is
frowned upon. But surely what
people, whether they be adults or children, read
is of little import. What is
significant is the fact that they are reading.
Someone
who reads a comic today may
have the courage to pick up a more substantial
tome later on.
H
But perhaps the best idea would be to
stop the negative attitudes to reading
from forming in the first place. Taking
children to local libraries brings them into
contact with an environment where they
can become relaxed among books. If
primary school children were also taken
in groups into bookshops, this might
also entice them to want their own
books. A local bookshop, like some local
libraries, could perhaps arrange book
readings for children which, being away
from the classroom, would make the
reading activity more of an adventure. On
a more general note, most countries
have writers of national importance. By
increasing
the
standing
of
national writers in
the
eyes
of
the
public,
through
local
and
national
writing
competitions,
people
would
be
drawn
more
to
the
printed word. Catch them young and,
perhaps, they just might then all become
bookworms.
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