Passage 1

One of Italy's leading universities is going to switch to using the English language for instruction. The university has announced that from 2014 most of its degree courses--- including all its graduate courses ---will be taught and assessed entirely in English rather than Italian. This is one of the oldest universities in Milan and a flagship institution for science, engineering and architecture, which lays claim to a Nobel Prize winner. Almost one in three of all Italy's architects are claimed as its graduates. So this is a significant step.

The waters of globalization are rising around higher education, and the university believes that if it remains Italian-speaking, it risks isolation and will be unable to compete as an international institution. Professor Azzone of this Italian university says that universities are in a more competitive world and if they want to stay with the other global universities, they have no other choice. He thinks that his university's experiment will open up a window of change for other universities", predicting that in five to ten years other Italian universities with global ambitions will also switch to English.

But what is driving this cultural change? Professor Azzone says the university wants to reach the widest market in ideas, and English has become the language of higher education, particularly in science and engineering. When English is the language of international business, he also believes that learning in English will make his students more employable. 

Anna, studying for a master's degree in energy engineering, says she has to use English when writing emails in her internship with an Italian company, and is criticized if she uses Italian. She agrees with the move to English as it is likely to improve her career prospects, and she thinks it is great if the universities give students the tools to use their knowledge all over the world. She also says it is a more affordable way for Italian students to learn in an international environment, without the cost of studying overseas.

Passage 2

There is pin-drop silence in a crowded classroom at a government primary school in the northern Indian state of Bihar. The students are looking curiously at a radio set placed on a plastic chair in the middle of the classroom in the capital, Patna. They are all waiting for a new English lesson to begin - on the radio. The lesson is called "English Is Fun" and teaches the basics of the language to primary school students. The kids think it is very easy to learn English on the radio. Every day they wait for this class. Even if the teacher is not in the class they learn and enjoy the lesson.

Interestingly, though underdeveloped and dirt-poor, Bihar appears to be a trendsetter here---a recent federal government report finds that school students in the state are now faring better in English and mathematics than anywhere else in the country. This is a state where only 47 percent of people are literate as against the national average of nearly 65 percent.

So, for half an hour, four days a week, millions of primary students in Bihar today learn English through this radio lesson. Ever since the program began in November last year it has become an instant hit with the students.

The Bihar Education Project created this English teaching radio program in collaboration with a US-based organization, the Education Development Center, and the United States Agency for International Development to boost primary education in the country.

The year-long interactive radio lessons are being broadcast by the four regional state-run All India Radio stations. The lessons cover seven million students attending 65,000 primary schools in all the 38 districts of the state. The state government has given 1,000 rupees to every primary school to purchase a radio set for this English learning program.

The program teaches the alphabet and words. There are interactive lessons in which students also pick up useful tips about traffic rules, health and so on. Teachers find the lessons useful. They think the program provides poor students of government schools with an opportunity to learn the English language and brush up their grammar while having fun.

Cloze

There are 20blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices markedA, B, C, and D. Choose the one that best fits into the passage.

Are you amotivated learner of English? Let's compare two English learners, Lora andJulie. Lora is a typical English learner with an    1    low level of motivation. To be specific, sheis ___2___ all English homework and has occasional moments of high motivation. ___3___,she only studies the day before her English test or ___4___she doesn't feelcomfortable to communicate with an English speaker. Her inability to expressherself ___5___ her to improve her English. However, this never lasts long.___6___ she spends two whole days before an exam studying ___7___, it's stillinadequate. She forgets 90 percent of the things she learned within a month.This is no surprise because the human memory ___8___ is short and you need toreview things all the time; ___9___, you just forget them.

Now let's lookat another English learner, Julie. She has been reading ___10___ storieswritten in simplified English, believing it will be ___11___. She readsdifferent stories almost every day for 30 minutes to ___12___her vocabulary.She has bought an English-English dictionary and uses it to ___13___ Englishwords that she doesn't know or are unfamiliar to her for their___14__ meanings.It was hard to study regularly at the beginning since every sentence was a(n)___15___to her. Fortunately, now she can read much faster. ___16___ reading,she often sees the words that she has learned in the past two weeks and writesdown the words that she is unfamiliar ___17___.

Obviously,Julies concentration on reading has made her a more ___18___English learner,but she wants to be even more ___19___ in using English. Because she readsregularly, she forgets little and her English ___20___ keeps growing. She willsoon be able to read newspapers and other resources written for nativespeakers.

1 A elaborately             B operationally       C inevitably       D evidently

2 A apparent to             B allergic to           C appealing to    D attaching to

3 A In comparison        B In contrast         C For example    D As a case

4 A when                      B whether             C how                 D unless

5 A launches                B plans                  C pushes             D introduces

6 A No matter              B Whatever          C Moreover         D Evenif

7 A massively              B expensively       C intensively       D progressively

8 A span                      B range                  C gap                  D space

9 A nevertheless         B otherwise           C furthermore      D however

10 A confident            B abundant           C extensive           D expensive

11 A crucial                B beneficial          C favorable           D preferable

12 A enlarge               B extend                C grow                 D swell

13 A look into           B look for               C look down         D look up

14 A absolute            B rigid                    C precise               D strict

15 A demand            B inquiry                C request               D challenge

16 A Where              B While                 C Whereas             D As 

17 A with                  B to                       C in                        D at

18 A grateful            B graceful              C successful          D helpful

19 A distinctive        B executive           C affirmative         D competitive

20 A productivity     B proficiency        C efficiency           D accuracy