This space contains
reference material beginning next to Question 24. There are two
separate passages to read: "Saving Our Vanishing Heritage" and
"Saving Our Vanishing 'Tongues.'"
Saving Our Vanishing Heritage
The following passage is the foreword of a report from the Global
Heritage Fund, an international conservancy whose mission is to
protect, preserve, and sustain the most significant and endangered
cultural heritage sites in the developing world.
Saving Our Vanishing Heritage explores the challenges facing our
most significant and endangered archaeological and heritage sites in
the developing world—and what we can do to save them—before they are
lost forever.
Our focus on the developing world is driven by the large number of
important cultural heritage sites which exist in regions with little
capacity to safeguard their existence. In the first decade of the
21st century, we have lost or seriously impaired hundreds of our
most precious historic sites—the physical record of our human
civilization.
Vanishing surveys over 500 global heritage sites and highlights the
accelerating threats facing these cultural treasures. Many have
survived thousands of years, only to be lost in this generation—on
our watch.
With the critical review of 24 leading experts working in heritage
conservation and international development, this report surveys
hundreds of endangered global heritage sites and strives to identify
those most in need of immediate intervention, and what the global
community can do to save them.
Our primary goals of this report are:
to raise critically needed global awareness
to identify innovative technologies and solutions
to increase funding through private-public
partnerships
Vanishing’s findings strongly suggest that the demise of our most
significant cultural heritage sites has become a global crisis, on
par with environmental destruction.
GHF surveyed over 1,600 accounts published between 2000 and 2009
concerning the state of conservation of hundreds of major sites in
the developing world.
In this report, GHF considered sites with the highest potential for
responsible development critical for the sustained preservation of
the site. GHF considers the scientific conservation of a site and
its potential for responsible development during our design and
planning process resulting in an integrated master plan and strategy
that goes well beyond traditional monument based approaches to
preservation. This report represents the first attempt to quantify
the value of heritage sites as global economic resources to help
achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Vanishing focuses on significant global heritage sites that have
high potential for future tourism and responsible development, but
the report’s findings and recommendations can and should be extended
to other realms of heritage preservation. Global heritage sites
generate extremely high economic asset values, with some worth
billions of dollars a year. These sites can help to greatly
diversify local economies beyond tourism and sustenance agriculture
reducing dependency and alleviating poverty.
Vanishing begins a global campaign to save the most important and
endangered heritage sites in the developing world.
How we as a global community act—or fail to act—in the coming years
will determine if we save our global heritage and can realize the
untapped economic opportunity these precious sites offer for global
development in the world's lowest-income communities and countries.
Saving Vanishing “Tongues”
by Stephen Ornes
Press “record” to pause
extinction
Many languages disappear every year. In a race against time,
language researchers are using digital technology to preserve those
tongues from extinction.
Linguists and other scientists record, share and study dwindling
tongues so the value of the language won’t be lost. These
researchers use modern technology, including voice recorders, MP3
players, computer software and online dictionaries, to preserve
words and sounds that would otherwise vanish.
“We can’t always stop [language extinction] from happening, but we
can make recordings of a language for future studies,” says Steven
Bird. A computer scientist at the University of Melbourne in
Australia, he develops software for recording languages. “People can
preserve these languages now, while there’s still time,” he says.
Documenting a language before it goes quiet isn’t just an effort to
preserve history. Linguists also can study the particular sounds,
words and structure of a language to better understand how it is
related to others. For instance, understanding how the English
language’s roots lie in ancient Germanic tells a story about human
history.
Languages also can provide unique insights into a place. For
example, a native tribe may have lived in one remote region for
thousands of years. That means its members know their natural
surroundings better than anyone else. Their language may contain
terms that reflect special knowledge about the local landscape, its
plants and its animals, Harrison points out. This can aid scientists
who want to study ecosystems near to where the language is spoken.
But Harrison sees his job as more than just aiding science. He
appreciates helping members of these threatened cultures preserve
part of their heritage. Many young people, he says, want to remember
their own history—even as they engage with the rest of the world.
“I come across many people in their teens and early 20s who want to
keep their heritage language because they value it,” he says.
“They’re saying, ‘Hey, our language is important to us. If we lose
it, we lose our identity.’”
Margaret Noodin can relate to that. She’s a linguist at the
University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Growing up in Minnesota during
the 1970s, she occasionally heard members of her family speaking
Anishinaabemowin (Ah-neesh-ee-nah-beh-MO-win). It’s the language of
the Ojibwe (Oh-JIB-way) Native American people.
Back then, speaking her tribe’s language was a risky move. That's
because the U.S. government had forbidden Native American tribes
from practicing many of their customs, including some parts of
religious ceremonies. That ban extended to their native languages.
“It didn’t count as a language in many ways, since it was illegal to
teach and publish,” Noodin says.
Forty years ago, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act became
law. It was followed, 12 years later, by the Native American
Languages Act. These changed government attitudes. With these laws,
the United States now recognized Native American cultural practices
as valuable. And it again legalized the teaching and publishing of
Native American languages.
That policy inspired a generation of people to preserve tribal
heritage. Growing up in an environment where her language had been
forbidden left a big mark on Noodin. She has spent decades since
then studying the endangered language of her family. She also is
working with other Native American tribes to preserve theirs.
For Questions 1-12, please select the correct definition of the given vocabulary word.
forbearance
misinterpret
cloudily
self-control
difficult
revulsion
a shell
disgust
fussy
painstakingly
persnickety
a shell
disgust
fussy
painstakingly
affronted
to help
to withdraw
grumpily
offended
fastidiously
a shell
disgust
fussy
painstakingly
opaquely
misinterpret
cloudily
self-control
difficult
accommodate
to help
to withdraw
grumpily
offended
misconstrue
misinterpret
cloudily
self-control
difficult
retract
to help
to withdraw
grumpily
offended
curmudgeonly
to help
to withdraw
grumpily
offended
carapace
a shell
disgust
fussy
painstakingly
arduous
misinterpret
cloudily
self-control
difficult
Which of the following should NOT be capitalized?
the Northeast
the Moon
A.D.
English class
Which of the following has been written correctly?
Spring and Fall
most improved player award
Earth and Venus
all-New England all stars
How long does Pi survive at sea, and—according to him—what’s the key to his survival?
eighty-three days; fear
118 days; Richard Parker
173 days; courage
227 days; busyness
Why does Pi give up on trying to decipher the navigation manual and studying the stars?
He has no means of controlling the boat.
He’s sick and doesn’t have the strength.
He knows that a higher power will guide him to safety.
He loses the manual and can’t see the stars.
Pi says, “What I saw was an upside-down town, small, quiet, and peaceable, whose citizens went about with the sweet civility of angels” (p. 198). What literary device is he using and what is he describing?
simile; Pondicherry
metaphor; the sea
hyperbole; a ship
onomatopoeia; a zoo
What, on the lifeboat, makes Pi homesick, and how does it make him homesick?
The feel of the oars make him yearn for his bed.
The sound of the waves reminds him of music.
The smell of the flare shells reminds him of cumin.
The sight of RP reminds him of the zoo.
To control Richard Parker and impose territory, Pi makes the tiger “green about the gills” (p. 204). What does this mean and what sort of literary device is being employed?
sick; idiom
fish-like; personification
envious; oxymoron
hungry; irony
How does Pi first witness that his efforts to achieve social dominance on the boat are working?
RP gives Pi food.
RP protects Pi from a shark.
RP purrs at Pi.
RP tries to hide his feces.
Which sentence is written correctly?
Do Noah and Roy’s ownership of this boat entitle them to membership in the Second Street yacht club?
Do Noah and Roy’s ownership of this boat entitle them to membership in the Second Street Yacht Club?
Do Noah's and Roy's ownership of this boat entitle them two to a membership in the second street yacht club
Do Noahs and Roys ownership of this boat entitle them two to a membership in the Second Street Yacht Club?
Which choice answers the question correctly and has no grammatical errors? Question: What two measures does Pi use as a means of controlling and imposing his territory on the lifeboat?
Pi uses his ability to make Richard Parker seasick and the sound of the whistle to impose his territory on the lifeboat. At any sign of the tiger’s incursion into his territory, the teen employs one of the measures or, preferably, both in conjunction.
Pi uses his whistle and food to control and impose his territory on the lifeboat. Pi blows the whistle randomly and feeds the tiger at irregular intervals.
Pi uses his whistle and the dark to control and impose his territory on the lifeboat. Pi blows the whistle randomly and feeds the tiger only at night, making the tiger wait for his master to eat first.
Pi uses his whistle and the tarp to control and impose his territory on the lifeboat. Pi blows the whistle whenever the tiger advances toward the tarp and feeds the tiger only when the tiger backs away from the tarp.
Which paragraph answers the questions correctly and also is grammatically correct?
While discussing boredom and terror, Pi narrates, “Sometimes your life is a pendulum swing from one to the other…Yet even these two opposites do not remain distinct” (p. 217). What does he mean? What stimulus (or stimuli) “consistently excites your emotions,” and why? Also, what point of view (first, second, or third person) does he employ here and why?
Pi’s quote about life being a “pendulum swing” (p. 217) means that life has moments of boredom and terror. These emotions are experienced by all humans, no matter their age or ethnicity. As Pi points out, the responses also occur in animals like Richard Parker. He mentions that at times of intense boredom, feelings of terror are possible and that even in the grips of terror, feelings of boredom are possible. The stimulus that brings the two opposites together, according to Pi, is confrontation between alphas. Confrontation is what “consistently excites your emotions,” as it is gives an adrenalin rush both when thought about and when a situation is actually occurring. The author, Yann Martel, probably has Pi narrate in the third person while discussing this observation because he wants to help the reader directly empathize with Pi’s situation. Furthermore, Martel probably wants to communicate the human universality of Pi’s observation. Certainly, thoughts and fears about confrontation are an element of shared human experience to which every reader can relate.
Pi’s quote about boredom and terror and their metaphorical resemblance to the movement of a clock’s pendulum relates to the extremes represented by each condition. These polar “opposites” (p. 217) represent two distinctly different responses to distinctly different situations. It is not ironic, as Pi points out, that the responses frequently overlap in certain situations. It is to be expected that at times of intense boredom, feelings of terror are possible and that even in the grips of terror, feelings of boredom are possible. The stimulus that brings the two opposites together, according to Pi, is fears or thoughts of oblivion. Death is not what “consistently excites your emotions,” because religious people have no fear of death. Only oblivion is feared in times of danger and contemplated in times of boredom. The author, Yann Martel, probably has Pi narrate in the first person while discussing this observation because he wants to help the reader directly empathize with Pi’s situation. Furthermore, Martel probably wants to communicate the human universality of Pi’s observation. Certainly, thoughts and fears about oblivion are an element of shared human experience to which almost every reader can relate.
Pi’s quote about boredom and terror and their metaphorical resemblance to the movement of a clock’s pendulum relates to the extremes represented by each condition. These polar “opposites” (p. 217) represent two distinctly different responses to distinctly different situations. Ironically, as Pi points out, the responses frequently overlap in certain situations. He mentions that at times of intense boredom, feelings of terror are possible and that even in the grips of terror, feelings of boredom are possible. The stimulus that brings the two opposites together, according to Pi, is fears or thoughts of death. Death is what “consistently excites your emotions,” as it is feared in times of danger and contemplated in times of boredom. The author, Yann Martel, probably has Pi narrate in the second person while discussing this observation because he wants to help the reader directly empathize with Pi’s situation. Furthermore, Martel probably wants to communicate the human universality of Pi’s observation. Certainly, thoughts and fears about death are an element of shared human experience to which every reader can relate.
Pi means that boredom and terror are like a pendulum because they are extremes, but they are unlike a pendulum because both feelings can be experienced at the same time. Obviously, a pendulum cannot be at both sides of its swing at the same time. A stimulus that can cause these emotions at the same time in me is a test. Tests are both boring and terrifying. The point of view Pi uses is third person. He uses it to include all readers, not just himself.
Which statement best describes the structure the author uses to develop the main idea in the passage “Saving Vanishing ‘Tongues’”?
He defines what a linguist is, and then explains how they determine which languages are worth saving.
He discusses the history of linguists’ efforts to preserve vanishing languages in roughly chronological order.
He presents the problem of vanishing languages, and then discusses how linguists work toward a solution.
He compares and contrasts the work of linguists in preserving vanishing languages to the work of scientists in other fields.
Read the excerpt from “Saving Vanishing ‘Tongues’” which contains the following sentences:
" Linguists and other scientists record, share and study dwindling tongues so the value of the language won’t be lost. These researchers use modern technology, including voice recorders, MP3 players, computer software and online dictionaries, to preserve words and sounds that would otherwise vanish."
In the context of the excerpt, the word “dwindling” most nearly means
gradually disappearing.
suddenly missing.
abruptly appearing.
increasingly popular.
Which two central ideas are shared by both of the passages “Saving Vanishing 'Tongues'” and “Saving Our Vanishing Heritage”?
Cultural heritage is especially endangered in countries in the developing world.
Studying and preserving cultural heritage has useful applications in many different fields.
Cultural heritage may vanish forever without the efforts of people to preserve it.
Studying and preserving cultural heritage has benefits beyond simply preserving history.
Studying and preserving cultural heritage can have economic benefits to people in developing countries.
Cultural heritage is especially endangered in countries in the developing world.