Table of Contents
BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 459
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 459 – PASSAGE – 3
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 459
READING PASSAGE – 3
Computers and grammar
What happens if computer takes to reading what we write, and judging it too? Experiments with using computers to mark exams have been on the rise for some time, and have now reached the point where they are supposed to be able to judge styles of writing.
Last week, the Westminster Education Forum amused itself with by hooking an exam-marking computer up to various classic works of literature and rhetoric. What marks would Jane Austen, William Golding, Hemmingway, Churchill get?
IELTS Academic Reading Test
The answer was predictable: too much repetition; not proper sentences; even grammatical incorrectness (it thought Churchill’s phrase “the might of the German army” was a misuse of the conditional “might”).
The conclusion was clear: a computer was at least as likely to make mistakes in marking as a student is in writing. But computers do not make up these standards themselves. They arise out of the principles of writing installed in them by, I am afraid to say, school teachers.
Those school-taught principles have a way of hanging around in the head. It’s surprising to discover what a load of old rubbish many of them are. First, teachers were always telling pupils not to repeat words- this is the one that did for Hemingway in the forum’s experiment.
IELTS Academic Reading Test
But why not? The alternative is something called elegant variation – not a good thing- and the style of very old sports reporters; Wayne Rooney, for instance, becomes, in succession, “the recent proud young father”, the lad from Liverpool”, “the Scouse bruiser”, “the pug-faced virtuoso of the leather globe” and so on, deliriously. Much better to stick to the accurate word.
A specific terrible application of this comes when pupils writing a story are asked not to repeat “he said” and ” she said”, but to vary the verbs of speech, so that people are always described as murmuring, stating, enunciating, chirruping, guffawing and so on. I expect teachers want to increase their pupils vocabulary but the fact remains that only truly terrible writers do this; good ones generally stick to “he said, she said”.
IELTS Academic Reading Test
Probably, nowadays, the demented old rules about not ending a sentence with a preposition and never splitting an infinitive have disappeared. But what seem to have taken their place are some creative-writing derived principles.
The good principle of not using unnecessary words is interpreted by teachers, and I dare say computers, to mean” if you can cross out a word, do so”. A “tiny little” object means something different from either a tiny, or a little, object; Sebastian Barry’s memorable title ‘A Long Long Way’ is different from both ‘a long way’, and ‘a very long way’. Either of these examples would get the computer’s alarm bells ringing.
IELTS Academic Reading Test
Computers could be programmed to recognise and deplore the passive voice such as, indeed,” could be programmed teachers hate it, despite its obvious usefulness.
They could even be instructed to identify instances where students have lapsed from that saddest of creative-writing instructions, “show don’t tell”, or to reward the pathetic belief that writing in the present tense is somehow more vivid than in the past.
But should they? Some of the things we are told in school, and apparently go on believing quite fervently, are not good general rules to which genius provides an exception. They are just terrible rules.
IELTS Academic Reading Test
Incidentally, I just ran this page through my computer’s grammar checker. It ticked me off for two fragmentary sentences, one misspelling and one non-existent word (“Scouse”), and made an impertinent suggestion regarding a comma. Its day, I think, is still to come.
Questions 27-32
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 27-32 of your answer sheet, write
YES – if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO – if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN – if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
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27. If computer-checked, great writers like Jane Austin and Hemmingway would get poor scores for grammar.
28. Many of the writing principles taught in schools are necessary.
29. It is not possible for common people to totally avoid repetition.
30. Genius does not like to abide by the terrible grammar rules.
31. It is not possible to create great literary works strictly following grammar rules.
32. Computer checking of literary works is an inevitability of the day.
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Questions 33-37
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Computer checking
Computers are poor evaluators of 33………….. . Their possibility of committing mistakes while checking is equal to that of a 34………….. in writing. Computers follow the age-old writing rules installed by 35………….. Many a times, writers vehemently try to avoid 36………….. which only make reading problematic. Some such harsh rules have been replaced by the principles of 37…………..
IELTS Academic Reading Test
Questions 38-40
Which three of the following are correct according to the writer? Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.
A. We follow some rules taught in schools religiously
B. Genius provides exception to all rules
C. Some rules of writing only make troubles in creative writing
D. Great literary works sometimes do not follow the rigorous rules of writing
E. Avoiding repetition of words in writing is possible for every writer
F. It is high time to start using computer for grammar checking
IELTS Academic Reading Test
IELTS Academic Reading Test
ANSWERS
27. YES
28. NO
29. YES
30. YES
31. NOT GIVEN
32. NO
33. GRAMMAR
34. STUDENT
35. SCHOOL TEACHER(S)
36. REPETITION
37. CREATIVE WRITING
38. A/C/D
39. A/C/D
40. A/C/D
IELTS Academic Reading Test