ELF – Engelsk läsförståelse (HPHOST2019P3)

Education and Pay

Education is key to increased economic equality. To get workers’ paychecks up, they have to possess better skills, yet many societies are not doing enough to improve schools and teachers and bolster job training. Enhancing access to good education isn’t just a matter of more money, however, but also how we spend that money. In a recent report, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recommended boosting investment in the early years of education, like preschool, since that improves a child’s academic performance over his or her entire career.

What is the main point here?

Immortality

Some scientists believe that one day technology will make it possible to achieve immortality by uploading our neural connections into robots’ bodies; others believe this is impossible. Regardless, legitimate philosophers are engaged in a debate over how such an eventuality would change our humanity. Their dialogue is important because even if the final goal falls short, human augmentation and improvements may raise similar issues.

What is the main point in this text?

What is the main point in the opening paragraph? 

What is said about the new study mentioned?

How does Barbara King regard Nicolas Baumard’s research? 

According to King, …

How does Bernard J. Crespi view Nicolas Baumard’s findings?

What is the writer’s overall attitude to Nicolas Baumard’s research?

Autism

People with autism are often unable to judge when a face conveys emotions such as happiness or sadness, and many researchers take this as evidence that autism involves serious deficits in processing social information. Yet the voice, too, can provide emotional cues, and several recent studies indicate that when listening to voices, people with autism can actually recognize feelings and other traits of humanness as well as – or even better than – neurotypical people do. The studies suggest that at least for some subgroups of autistic people in certain situations, deficits in identifying emotions could be confined primarily to vision. ‘This is great news from a treatment perspective,’ says researcher Kevin Pelphrey at George Washington University. ‘It is much easier to help someone overcome an inability to read emotion from faces than it would be to treat a fundamental lack of understanding of emotion from all modalities.

What is the main point here in relation to autistic people?

China Today

Once again, as a thousand years ago, China leads the world in many ways. For example, they are global leaders in genetic engineering, the Chinese government directing billions of dollars towards research into modifying genes of crops, animals and even humans. China also leads the world in mobile banking, spending on luxury goods, high-speed rail, car manufacture, foreign trade, the export of machinery and electronic products – and in the size of its art market. It has the planet’s largest number of broadband subscribers, and is ahead in both solar and wind industry, as well as in the use of methanol as an alternative fuel. It also leads the world in the growth of millionaires – and in poverty reduction.

Which of the following phrases best characterizes China’s overall progress, as described in the text? 

Restless Legs Syndrome

Glaxo Smith Kline made restless legs syndrome – a disorder characterized in part by the urge to move one’s legs at night – a household term in 2003, when it ran a vigorous awareness campaign for the disorder. The pharmaceutical company began by issuing press releases about presentations given at the 2003 annual meeting for the American Academy of Neurology, a professional society representing neurologists and neuroscientists. Two months later it distributed another press release, for a company-funded, as yet unpublished study, entitled “New survey reveals common yet under-recognized disorder – restless legs syndrome – is keeping Americans awake at night.” The press releases led to a slew of media coverage of the disorder; according to an analysis in 2006, one fifth of all articles written about it referred readers to the nonprofit Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation for more information, an organization that is heavily subsidized by Glaxo Smith Kline.

What is the main point here?