Day reading Passage (Australian culture and culture shock)

12 
Grossly (adv) 
- extremely.

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13 
Trivial (adj) 
(B2) - having little value or importance.
Example: I don’t know why he gets so upset about something so trivial.
14 
To suspect (v) 
(B2) - to think or believe something to be true or probable.
Example: Medical investigators suspect the outbreak was caused by bacteria in the
water supply.
Example: He’s grossly overweight.

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Day 17
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading
Passage 2 below.
Giftedness and Intelligence
A 
There is a popular view that, by definition, gifted children have IQs of 140 upwards 
and that testing intelligence by psychologists using an individually administered 
intelligence test, such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children, the British 
Ability Scales or the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, can help to pick out 
children who might otherwise not be identified as extraordinarily able. Used in this 
way and in conjunction with other data, educational or clinical psychologists have 
often advised parents or educationalists on strategies to help children realise their 
abilities.
В 
However, today, many psychologists have doubts about the efficacy of these tests 
and about the ethics of using them. Unfortunately, the terms intelligence and IQ have 
become such a part of language that we tend to use them as if we knew what they 
meant. Many readers have found it reassuring to read the first sentence of this article 
and think, ‘Yes, now we know where we are’, when, of course, we have said nothing 
more than, ‘Lots of people think something which may or may not be true.’
С 
When Alfred Binet, as the director of psychology laboratory at the Sorbonne in Paris, 
was invited in 1904 to construct a test to identify pupils who might need special 
assistance in their education, he reasoned that older children would perform better 
on mental tasks than younger children and that what was needed was a set of tasks 
arranged in chronological order. Children of 7 years of age who performed at the 
5-year-old level, for instance, needed special help (his mental orthopaedics) in small 
classes to enable them to improve.
D 
It was all very simple, sensible and empirical. In Benet’s words, ‘It matters very little 
what the tests are, so long as they are numerous.’ He avoided items like reading 
skills, which reflected schooling or rote learning and emphasised that he was not 
measuring intelligence, which was too complex to be measured, and that the results 
of his tests were pure diagnostic and did not represent innate or immutable qualities. 
He fully recognized that children from cultural homes who attended schools with 
small classes would most likely do well.
E 
Unfortunately, some psychologists in the UK and in the USA fastened upon Binet’s 
tests and adopted his notions for purposes he never intended, and so the highly 
profitable testing industry was quickly spawned to serve the interests of armed 
forces, employers and educational administrators. On the one hand, they adopted the

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Reading Passage 2
concept of intelligence as a single human attribute like height and, on the other, they 
maintained it was a faculty which was largely inherited. Some of the arguments about 
how much intelligence was inherited - 70%, 80%? - and how much environmentally 
determined, read like the discussions about how many angels could stand on the top 
of a needle.
F 
If one defines what is to be measured and always uses the same piece of knotted 
string to measure it, it is perfectly proper to compare the results, especially if one 
subjects the value or significance of what has been measured may still be in doubt. 
Unfortunately, even measuring people’s height accurately is not the simple matter it 
appears to be at first sight. How would we measure an abstract quality like strength 
and equate it to weight or height or age? The sensible advice we give anyone who 
suggested embarking on such a project would be ‘don’t: “strength” is an abstraction 
and, like ‘intelligence’, results from a number of different elements’. Hence, if you 
want to investigate human performance, whether it is ‘strength’ or what is popularly 
called ‘intelligence’, it is better to do so by studying discrete elements in specific 
situations. Today, it is that direction in which studies of intellect have moved.
G 
There is another important reason why IQ tests have waned in popularity: even if 
they test abilities of one sort or another, which undoubtedly many of them do, they do 
not test life-skills such as personality, motivational and emotional factors, which may 
crucially affect future performance and achievement. We would suggest that taken 
alone, the result of an IQ test has little value and the view of a unitary, innate faculty 
such as intelligence diverts our attention from the diversity of abilities, skills and 
qualities of children.
H 
Again, if we are told, for instance, that children are highly intelligent but are grossly 
underperforming, what is significant is not their abilities but the factors which 
have caused their inability to perform, factors we should have been attending to 
all along. IQ tests are unlikely to have discovered why Churchill or Einstein was 
underperforming at school, if such was in fact the case, nor could they have predicted 
how they would develop. And we all know people who are intelligent but can do 
nothing. People who are all empty words and vain gestures.
I 
Instead of assessing children’s intelligence as measured by intelligence tests, we 
could be better employed finding out what they can do and how well and quickly 
they can learn to do more. Tests of intelligence, sometimes masquerading as tests 
of mental ability, usually succeed in testing what they have been designed to test.
But many have a strong verbal element which favours children with a highly verbal 
background, for example, children of professional people. They will not identify 
children with artistic or musical abilities and they are unlikely to reveal pupils of 
exceptional mathematical ability. Some sensitive or over-anxious children may 
underperform in test situations, and some exceptionally gifted children may find the 
questions so trivial that they will suspect a trick and spend time searching for hidden 
meanings.

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Day 17
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, А-I, in boxes 14-16 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14
an explanation of methodology behind Binet’s tests
15 
a discussion of intelligence as a single measurable characteristic
16 
reasons for inadequacy of intelligence tests
Questions 14-16
Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, 
A -l.
Questions 17-20
Choose the correct letter, А, В, С or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 17-20 on your answer sheet.
17 
The writer’s purpose in this passage is to