Málfríður - 15.05.1993, Blaðsíða 11

1. What, according to the article below, is the best way to get somebody off a public telephone?
A To draw the person's attention.
B To stare intently at the person.
C To keep a distance.
D To wait close to the telephone booth.
muafi
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If you want to use the
phone when someone’s on it,
better make yourseif scarce. Re-
searchers at Georgia State University
found that people spend longer on the
phone when they know someone’s waiting. V o
Subjects the researchers interviewed said O
they’d shorten their calls for another person, but
random callers observed at shopping centers, hos-
pitals, university and airport lounges and a subway
station clung to the lines. According to Barry Ru-
back, Ph.D., one of the researchers, having
someone within ten feet of you can inspire “ter-
ritorial defense,” the assertion of one’s right to
possess, if only temporarily, the public space
in question. If you think jingling a handful
of coins in your pocket or staring at
someone is a good way to get her
off the phone, think again. It
will probably only de-
lay your tum.
It is repeated in several different ways (so if the student doesn’t know one or more of the expressions
(s)he gets other chances) that the best thing to do is to stay away from the telephone. (Answer: C)
1992 MAVO-test.
tee composed of three teachers
from the school level concerned
and a CITO-specialist. (The teac-
hers know what the appropriate
level should be not only from
their experience with the stu-
dents, but also from guidelines
given out by the Ministry of Edu-
cation that specify the educatio-
nal requirements for each
school type.) The texts are then
sent to various groups of teac-
hers and other specialists, who
pass their judgment and either
approve or disapprove of them.
It is hoped that in this way the
right level and optimum quality
is reached. After the texts have
been agreed upon questions are
constructed. The questions un-
dergo a similar process of scree-
ning and careful scrutinising. It
should be noted that the multi-
ple choice form imposes serious
limitations on the choice of
texts. It is very difficult to find a
text where each paragraph con-
tains enough information to
yield three or four plausible al-
ternative answers to the ques-
tion asked.
Below is a longer MAVO-text
from the 1992 exam. For this
more intensive reading is requi-
red, although the questions still
test the general understanding
of the passage concerned. Only
four of the eleven questions are
given here.
For question 33 the students
not only need to understand to
what words “that prediction” re-
fers, but also what those words
mean, how they could be para-
phrased. (Answer: B)
Question 34 asks about the es-
sence of lines 7-9. These lines ex-
plain in what way Lesley is a per-
son of “outstanding achieve-
ment” (line 6). (Answer: A)
For question 35 the students
need to realise that the “social
revolution" in line 10 is explain-
ed in the rest of the sentence
which they need to understand.
(Answer: A)
Question 36 asks about the es-
sence of what Diane says about
Lesley. (Answer: A)
The following is a longer VWO-
text from the 1992 exam. Three
of the six questions are given
here.
Question 16: The students
clearly need not know all the
words in this paragraph, be-
cause they can find more than
one clue to the right answer in it.
Lines 1-5 and lines 5-8 each sugg-
est the right answer A.
Question 17 asks about the es-
sence of the paragraph: why
does Wiesenthal try to find the
Nazi criminals, what is the driv-
ing force behind his efforts?
(Answer: B)
In question 18 the students
are expected to be able to sum-
marise the paragraph. (Answer:
C)
I have tried to describe the
purpose of each question in the
above samples. There are also a
few principles underlying the
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