2. Rich and ambitious businesses set up special groups …

a) to make films and TV series about computers;

b) to develop voice-controlled computers;

c) to demonstrate computer technology of the future;

d) to show how far the present technology has advanced.

3. The writer suggests that the naturalness of spoken communication between humans …

a) enables us to transfer meaning from person to person easily;

b) will help to design computers with voice interfaces;

c) makes it easy to understand how voice-controlled computers will work;

d) makes us wrongly believe that speaking to computers can go on similarly.

4. Which of the following is not mentioned among the main problems involved in using computers to react to human orders?

a) Computers lack human experience.

b) Many words have contextual meaning.

c) Some features of human language are not understandable for computers.

d) Computers cannot understand emotions and feelings.

5. The writer aims primarily at …

a) comparing different views concerning computer speech recognition;

b) encouraging scientists to join their efforts in creating voice-controlled computers;

c) showing that the problem of creating voice-controlled computers is far from being solved;

d) trying to prove that creating voice-controlled computers is a totally impossible thing.

Read the passage and mark the statements below T (true) or F (false)

Text 2

While that old saying ‘First in school, last in life’ may not be true, doing well at school does not determine success later on. When I surveyed captains of industry, they were unanimous in declaring university degrees irrelevant to long-term success. Charles Reynolds, Managing Director of a large multi-national electronics company, was adamant: “Studies show that among top business people school failure is actually the norm.

It is staggering, then, when you consider that parents and teachers consistently exhort children to ‘do well at school for your future’, that there is no scientific evidence that school or university exam results predict success throughout life. There is even evidence suggesting the opposite.

Professor Liam Hudson has published a number of studies which shatter the myth that high grades at university are an essential prerequisite for carrying out leading scientific research. ‘Given what it takes to get a first class degree at university,’ he told me, ‘this should not be surprising. To achieve high grades, you need to please your teachers, enjoy being supervised closely and, ultimately, please the examiners. You must ignore what you think and concentrate on what they want. To do important scientific research you need the opposite: to think originally and be highly self-motivated rather than craving constant praise, and to be able to work alone for long periods.’

I suspect that it is a myth that those who achieve first class degrees are of superior originality. They work hard and they are ambitious to do well in exams, but that does not prepare them for success in their subsequent careers.

1. It is a myth that good exam results are critical to our occupational future.

2. The writer carried out a survey among leading industrialists in order to find out whether they had their own assessment systems for job applicants.

3. The writer isn’t surprised at the efforts of adults to encourage children to study better.

4. Though irrelevant for schoolchildren, high grades at university are a definite advantage for a career in science.

5. It can be inferred from the passage that people striving for close supervision and outside praise are unable to think or work independently.