Exercises on Reading: Reading passages are taken from TOEFL

4. The ‘combining’ in line 35 is closest in meaning to A. trying B. changing C. adding D. finding 5. The word ‘them’ in line 21 refers to A. fuel cells B. metals C. treatments D. products 6. Where in the passage does the author explain why hydrogen is used as a refrigerant? A. Lines 8-10 B. Lines 15-18 C. Lines 20-21 D. Lines 24-26 7. What does the author mean by the statement in lines 21-24: ‘Although it ................................. easily removed’? A. It is easy to form steam by heating water. B. Water can be made by combining hydrogen and oxygen. C. Hydrogen cannot be separated from oxygen because it is too difficult. D. Oxygen is removed by combining it with hydrogen and heating it. 8. How does hydrogen generally occur? A. It is freely available in nature. B. It is contained in many compounds. C. It is often found in pure form. D. It is released during hydrogenation. 9. The author mentions all of the following as uses for hydrogen EXCEPT A. to remove tarnish from metals B. to produce fuels such as gasoline and methyl alcohol C. to operate fuel cells that generate electricity D. to change solid foods to liquids 10. It can be inferred from the passage that hydrogen A. is too dangerous to be used for industrial purposes B. has many purposes in a variety of industries C. has limited industrial uses because of its dangerous properties D. is used in many industries for basically the same purpose Exercise 2 Read the following passage carefully and then answer the questions Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse was not Walt Disney’s first successful cartoon creation, but he is certainly his most famous one. It was on a cross- country train trip from New York to California in 1927 that Disney Line first drew the mouse with the big ears. Supposedly, he took his 5 inspiration from the tame field mice that used to scamper into his old studio in Kansas City. No one is quite sure why he dressed the mouse in the now-familiar shorts with two buttons and gave him the yellow shoes. But we do know that Disney had intended to call him Mortimer until his wife Lillian intervened and christened him Mickey 10 Mouse. Capitalizing on the interest in Charles Lindbergh, Disney planned Mickey’s debut in the short cartoon Plane Crazy, with Minnie as a co-star. In the third short cartoon, Steamboat Willie, Mickey was whistling and singing through the miracle of the modern soundtrack. 15 By the 1930s Mickey’s image had circled the globe. He was a superstar at the height of his career. Although he has received a few minor changes throughout his lifetime, most notably the addition of white gloves and the alterations to achieve the rounder forms of a more childish body, he has 20 remained true to his nature since those first cartoons. Mickey is appealing because he is nice. He may get into trouble, but he takes it on the chin with a grin. He is both good-natured and resourceful. Perhaps that was Disney’s own image of himself. Why else would he have insisted on doing Mickey’s voice in all the cartoons for twenty 25 years? When interviewed, he would say, “There is a lot of the mouse in me.” And that mouse has remained one of the most pervasive images in American popular culture. 1. Which of the following is the main topic of the passage? A. The image of Mickey Mouse B. The life of Walt Disney C. The history of cartoon D. The definition of American culture 2. What distinguished Steamboat Willie from earlier cartoons? A. Better color B. A sound track C. Minnie Mouse as co star D. The longer format 3. The word ‘pervasive’ in line 26 could be best be replaced by A. well-loved B. widespread C. often copied D. expensive to buy 4. The word ‘appealing’ in line 21 is closest in meaning to A. attractive B. famous C. exceptional D. distinguishable 5. The ‘those’ in line 20 refers to A. cartoons B. forms C. gloves D. changes 6. Where in the passage does the author relate how Mickey got his name? A. Lines 8-10 C. Lines 15-16 B. Lines 11-13 D. Lines 17-2n 7. What does the author mean by the statement in lines 17-20: “Although ............. first cartoons”? A. The current version of Mickey Mouse is different in every way from the early cartoons. B. The original Mickey Mouse was one of the first cartoon characters. C. In the first cartoons, Mickey Mouse looked more like a child. D. The personality of Mickey Mouse has not changed over the years. 8. What did Disney mean when he said, “There is a lot of the mouse in me?” A. He was proud of the mouse that he created. B. He knew that the mouse would be a famous creation. C. He created the mouse with many of his own qualities. D. He had worked very hard to create the mouse. 9. The first image of Mickey Mouse is described as all of the following EXCEPT A. he was dressed in shorts with two buttons B. he had big ears C. he wore yellow shoes D. he was wearing white gloves 10. The paragraph following the passage most probably discusses A. the history of the cartoons B. other images in popular culture C. Walt Disney’s childhood D. the voices of cartoon characters Exercise 3 Read the following passage carefully and then answer the questions Eugene O’Neill Universally acclaimed as America’s greatest playwright, Eugene O’Neill was born in 1888 in the heart of the theater district in New York City. As the son of an actor he had early exposure to the world Line of the theater. He attended Princeton University briefly in 1906, but 5 returned to New York to work in a variety of jobs before joining the crew of a freighter as a seaman. Upon returning from voyages to South Africa and South America, he was hospitalized for six months to recuperate from tuberculosis. While he was recovering, he determined to write a play about his adventures on the sea. 10 He went to Harvard, where he wrote the one-act Bound East for Cardiff. It was produced in 1916 on Cape Cod by the Provincetown Players, an experimental theater group that was later to settle in the famous Greenwich Village theater district in New York City. The Players produced several more of his one-acts in the years between 15 1916—1920. With the full-length play Beyond the Horizon, produced on Broadway in 1920, O’Neill’s success was assured. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for the best play of the year. O’Neill was to be awarded the prize again in 1922, 1928, and 1957 for Anna Christie, Strange Interlude, and Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Although he 20 did not receive the Pulitzer Prize for it, Mourning Becomes Electra, produced in 1931, is arguably his most lasting contribution to the American theater. In 1936, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. O’Neill’s plays, forty-five in all, cover a wide range of dramatic 25 subjects, but several themes emerge, including the ambivalence of family relationship, the struggle between the sexes, the conflict between spiritual and material desires, and the vision of modern man as a victim of uncontrollable circumstances. Most of O’Neill’s characters are seeking meaning in their lives. According to his 30 biographers, most of the characters were portraits of himself and his family. In a sense, his work chronicled his life. 1. The passage is a summary of O’Neill’s A. work C. work and life B. life D. family 2. How many times was O’Neill awarded the Pulitzer Prize? A. One C. Four B. Three D. five 3. The word “briefly” in line 4 is closest in meaning to A. seriously B. for a short time C. on scholarship D. without enthusiasm 4. The word “struggle” in line 26 is closest in meaning to A. influence B. conflict C. appreciation D. denial 5. The word “it” in line 20 refers to A. Harvard B. one-act play C. theater group D. theater district 6. Where in the passage does the author indicate the reason for O’Neill’s hospitalization? A. Lines 3-4 B. Lines 6-8 C. Lines 10-13 D. Lines 16-19 7. What does the author mean by the statement in lines 29-31: “According to …….…. his family”? A. He used his family and his own experiences in his plays. B. His biography contained stories about him and his family. C. He had paintings of himself and members of his family. D. His biographers took pictures of him with his family. 8. According to the passage, which of O’Neill’s play was most important to the American theater? A. Anna Christie B. Beyond the Horizon C. Long Day’s Journey Into Night D. Mourning Becomes Electra 9. The author mentions all of the following as themes for O’Neill’s plays EXCEPT A. life in college B. adventures at sea C. family life D. relationships between men and women 10. We can infer from the information in the passage that O’Neill’s plays were not A. controversial B. autobiographical C. optimistic D. popular Exercise 4 Read the following passage carefully and then answer the questions The Print Revolution For more than five thousand years, from the dawn of civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt, people in the West wrote by hand. Imperial degrees, sacred scriptures, commercial transactions, private letters---all required the skills of a select group of scribes, clerks, or monks. In Korea and China, however, mechanical printing using carved wooden blocks had been introduced by A.D. 750. Moveable type, using characters made of baked clay, was invented in China in the eleventh century. But the Chinese continued to prefer block printing well into the modern period. Written Chinese consists of thousands of ideographic characters. The labor of creating, organizing, and setting so many different bits of type made it much simpler to cut individual pages from a single wooden block. European languages, which can be written with fewer than a hundred characters, were much better adapted to printing with moveable, reusable type. It appears that the Mongol armies brought examples of Chinese printing---the Venetian Marco Polo described seeing paper money during his travels---to western Asia and Europe at the end of the thirteenth century. In the early fourteenth century, European began using block printing techniques to produce religious images, short prayers, and even decks of playing cards. As with Chinese printing, European block printing was a slow and expensive process for printing large numbers of varied texts. The print revolution had to wait another century, until the innovations of the German goldsmith Johan Gutenberg ca. 1399---1468. Gutenberg drew on his knowledge of metallurgy to devise a lead-tin-copper alloy that could be cast into durable, reusable type. His crucial invention was a type mold consisting of a flat strip of metal---stamped in the same way a coin is minted, leaving the impression of a single letter---inserted in the bottom of a rectangular brass of box held together by screws. Molten metal was poured into it, producing a single piece of type. An experienced type founder could produce up to six hundred pieces of type a day. No wooden- block carver could have approached that rate. To solve the remaining problems, Gutenberg adapted the screw press commonly used to produce linen, paper, and wine to make a printing press. He followed the example of Flemish painters by adding linseed oil to the ink to make it thick enough to adhere uniformly to the metal type. In 1455, the Gutenberg Bible was published in Mainz., Germany---but not by Gutenberg. After years of costly experimentation, Gutenberg was forced to turn over his equipment and newly printed Bibles to his partner and creditor, the wealthy merchant and moneylender Johann Fust. The new technology, which enabled printers to create a thousand or more copies in a single print run, was highly efficient. Simple printed school texts cost only a quarter of the price of hand- copied texts. The leading bookseller in the university town of Bologna managed to stock ten thousand copies of texts, treatises, and commentaries. By 1500, even street singers sold printed copies of their songs. Gutenberg’s invention was revolutionary because, for the first time, the same information and ideas were available throughout Europe at virtually the same time. The great Venetian printer Aldus Manutius 1450-1515 produced over 120,000 volumes, many in the new, smaller, easily portable “octavo” format---about 6 by 9 inches. Books from the Aldine Press and other humanistic publishers played a decisive role in spreading humanism to parts of Europe where manuscript books were difficult to acquire. Moreover, book owning was no longer the exclusive preserve of scholars. This is all the more true because printers included on their lists words in vernacular languages, not just the ancient classics. The very popularity of printed vernacular texts affected language. William Caxton 1422---1492, for example, began printing books in English in 1472. His pioneering work help standardize modern English, just as the publication of Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible in 1522 would standardize modern German. The advent of printing had other far-reaching consequences: it promoted the increase of literacy throughout Europe. By the eighteenth century, printed books had changed the nature of popular culture. Myths, folk songs, and popular histories were traditionally passed by word of mouth, often changing in the telling to fit the time and place. Once they appeared in print, they could no longer be performed and refashioned, only recited. Printing not only changed the way information was transmitted but also changed the character of the information itself. 1. With which of the following topics is the passage primarily concerned? A. A comparison of religious and humanistic publications B. An account of Gutenberg’s inventions C. A history of the printing process worldwide D. The effects of books on the history o Europe 2. How was popular culture affected by printing? A. The oral tradition required editing of printed documents. B. Stories and songs changed less often. C. More folk histories were preserved. D. Traditional performers became more popular. 3. The word crucial in the passage is closest in meaning to ….. A. totally new B. very significant C. greatly debated D. highly complex 4. The word character in the passage is closest in meaning to ….. A. popularity B. nature C. truth D. difficulty 5. The word it in the passage refers to ….. A. box B. letter C. impression D. coin 6. According to paragraph 6, how did European learn about block printing? A. They saw examples that were brought from China by explorers and solders. B. A German goldsmith invented it at the beginning of the fifteenth century. C. It was devised in Europe in order to print paper money. D. The Egyptians used the blocks for documents the Europeans received. 7. Which of the sentences below best expresses the information in the highlighted statement in the passage? A. Scholars owned more books that other people. B. Scholars were not the only people who could own books. C. Scholars preserve books for use by other people. D. Scholars owned some exclusive books. 8. The author mentions all of the following advantages of the print revolution EXCEPT ….. A. the standardization of English B. the advancement of literacy C. the dissemination of humanism D. the restoration of manuscripts 9. It can be inferred that Gutenberg ….. A. had probably traveled to China and western Asia B. did not live to see his invention succeed C. was a painter before he became an inventor D. worked for a long time to perfect his painting process 10. That the invention of Gutenberg was progressive is indicated by ….. A. the availability of copies of books and documents B. the speedy dissemination of information and ideas C. the simultaneous spread of information and ideas D. the printing of information, ideas and languages

C. Summary of Reading Activity

At the end the reading activity, the participants of this training are supposed to be able to read and then understand several English passages on different topics by means of answering the given questions provided after each of the reading passage.

BAB IV WRITING ACTIVITY

A. Competence and Indicator 1. Competence To write a composition in English with a variety of texts 2. Indicator The ability to write a composition a certain genre, such as recount, narrative, procedure, etc. B. Teaching and Learning Activity 1. Points to consider In order to compose a procedural text, please consider the following characteristics of procedure: Social function: to describe how something is accomplished through a sequence of actions or steps. Generic Structure: goal materials not required for all procedural texts steps 1---n i.e. Goal followed by a series of steps oriented to achieving the goal Significant Lexicogrammatical Features: a focus on generalized human agents the of use simple present tense, often imperative the use of mainly temporal conjunctions or numbering to indicate sequence the use of mainly material processes 2. Suggested titles: 1. How to plant a banana tree 2. How to make ketupat 3. How to make fried rice from rice grain 3. Note for tutor: Title of the composition can be determined by each tutor Example of directive procedural text: How to Make Ketupat Several days before the Iedul Fitri lebaran the Indonesian people prepare foods for celebrating the happy day. One of the foods is called ketupat. Do you know how to make ketupat? If you don’t know how to make it, here is a recipe for you. First, make ketupat frames if you have the material, that is young coconut leaves. If you don’t have any, buy …………………. Second, .………………….. Third, ………………….The next step, …………….

C. Exercise on Writing

Participants of the training are supposed to continue the unfinishedprocedure above or make a different composition either with the same or different genres.

D. Summary of the Writing Activity

At the end of the writing activity, the participants of this training are supposed to be able write a well-formed composition of either one of the various genres of writing such as procedure, narrative, descriptive, etc.