FINAL EXAM 2 Written Comprehension Name: Mark: . (20 points) A Magazine Article 1 Read the magazine article. Then complete the sentences on the following page. (5 points) FRIENDS AND NUMBERS 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Everyone needs friends. People who don’t have friends can be very lonely and depressed. Friends support and encourage us in difficult times. They accept us as we are and make us feel loved and respected. In fact, friends are as important to our health as eating right and exercising. A recent study even found that having friends in our life helps improve brain health. But what about people who have too many friends? Is there actually such a thing as having too many friends? Some people believe the answer is “yes”. With the growing role of social media, there are quite a few people among us who appear to have hundreds and even thousands of friends. However, according to Robin Dunbar, a professor from the University of Oxford, our brain can only manage friendships with a maximum of 150 people. Dunbar’s Number, as social researchers call it, is broken down into four circles: 150, 50, 15 and 5. The circle of 50 are friends you might invite to a party at home. The ones you turn to for support and compassion are the circle of 15. The smallest circle of your closest friends often includes some family members. Social media has increased the number of friends that we’ve got in a superficial way, challenging Dunbar’s Number. Yet researchers have found that even if you have 500 friends on Facebook, you stay in touch with only 150 of them. It’s like having a cupboard full of shirts but actually only wearing perhaps a third of them. What is the problem then? Well, when a person has got 500 friends online, he or she spends more time “on” online friends who don’t really matter, taking away both online and face-to-face time from those who do. This focus on distant online friends may harm our relationships with our closest friends. In addition, Dunbar is worried about the lack of physical interaction among friends. Even minimal touch releases endorphins in people’s bodies and these are important for our health and for creating personal relationships. Dunbar concludes that as long as social media can’t imitate touch, it can’t fully replace real friendships. Online social relationships – whether you are typing or speaking – can’t produce the same effect as physical face-toface relationships do. So stop looking at the quantity of friends you’ve got and stay focused on the quality of your friendships. We have only got a limited space in our brains for real, deep friendships. Advanced Think Ahead 3 Photocopiable © Burlington Books 1 FINAL EXAM 2 2 1. Without friends, we will be very . 2. People seem to have more friends these days because of . 3. Dunbar’s Number refers to the maximum . 4. The writer compares wearing only a third of your shirts to . 5. When people touch each other, their bodies release . Answer the questions. (10 points) 1. How are a person’s 15 closest friends described? 2. Why are family members mentioned in the text? 3. What happens to our relationships with our closest friends when we have too many online friends? 4. Which element in friendship are we missing with social media? 5. What does the writer advise people to do? 3 Find words or phrases in the text to match the definitions below. (5 points) 1. divided into (lines 10-19) 2. added to (lines 20-25) 3. maintain contact (lines 20-25) 4. aren’t very important (lines 26-35) 5. hurt (lines 26-35) Written Production (10 points) Task 1: A Narrative Imagine something amusing happened to you or someone you know. Write what happened, when and where it happened, and the people’s feelings about the experience. Task 2: A Notice Think of a fun event in your school or town. Write a notice letting people know about it. Include the following: 1. the type of event and who it’s for 2. the time and place 3. the cost if relevant 4. activities that are planned 5. who to contact for more information Advanced Think Ahead 3 Photocopiable © Burlington Books 2 FINAL EXAM 2 1 13 0 20 2 Oral Comprehension (10 points) A Guided Tour 1 Listen to the guided tour and choose the correct answer. (5 points) 1. Why can’t people visit Eynhallow most of the year? a. The tides are too high. b. It’s haunted. c. Boats aren’t allowed there. 2. Which of the following is NOT true? a. The island’s name shows that people thought it was haunted. b. A church was built on the island in the 12th century. c. People lived on the island in the Stone Age. 3. Why did people leave the island in 1851? a. Archeologists evacuated them. b. There was a dangerous disease on the island. c. The houses didn’t have roofs. 4. Who lives on the island at present? a. the tour guide b. four families c. no one 5. The term ‘Finfolk’ refers to … . a. a type of fish living by the island b. characters in a legend c. seabirds 2 Listen again and complete the sentences. (5 points) 1. Eynhallow is an island that is next to the coast of 2. Eynhallow means . in an ancient language. 3. On the island, there are from medieval times and the Stone Age. 4. The people who used to live on the island didn’t want other people to come there and 5. As the visitors arrive at the island, the tour guide recommends looking at the Oral Production . . (10 points) A Conversation Ask your partner questions to complete the chart. My partner’s answers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. something he / she will be doing this time next week something he / she should do more often a summer plan something interesting he / she heard on the news an activity he / she did in the past Advanced Think Ahead 3 Photocopiable © Burlington Books 3