I.S.P. "Dr. Joaqun V.

Gonzlez"
Departamento de Ingls
Curso de Consolidacin
Docente a cargo: Lic. Daniela Fiorina
Name: .

Reading Comprehension Exercise # 222

Below the passage, you will find a number of questions or unfinished statements about the
passage, each with four suggested answers or ways of finishing. You must choose the
one which you think fits best. Give one answer only to each question. Show your choice
by circling a letter. Read the passage right through before choosing your answers.
As I was putting this book on Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)
together, I could almost hear the collective groan rising up from staff and
common rooms throughout the land:
surely not another breezy little
introduction to the mighty micro, more pressure on us to dabble in expensive,
irrelevant and time-consuming technology at a time when the teacher is
struggling simply to survive in an increasingly harsh world. Most teachers are
hard put to find the price of a box of chalk, let alone of a roomful of
microcomputers.
Such a reaction is, to put it mildly, easy to comprehend, particularly at a time
of much general political tub-thumping about the need to embrace the chip or
perish, to espouse what is vaguely dubbed information technology, without
the well-meaning generalities having yet been satisfactorily translated into
positive action on the ground (with a few laudable exceptions). Computers are
now supposed to be operating across the curriculum, but one microcomputer to
a thousand pupils is not likely to achieve this end for a very long time. Hence it
is not to be wondered at that the school of criticism which cheerfully asserted
I have not read such-and-such a book but I think it should be banned is alive
and well among the anti-computer lobbyists.
There is no escaping the fact that CALL is new and, like all new things,
treated by one camp with deep suspicion, and by a handful of enthusiasts with
over-optimistic glee. It has been condemned on the one hand as impersonal
and educationally unsound, and praised to the skies on the other as ushering in
a new era of open, interactive and creative learning. As usual the truth lies
somewhere in between, and it is my purpose to determine precisely where the
truth is to be located.
This book does not set out to present, from the cushioned comfort of my
academic ivory tower, an enthusiastic hymn of praise to the micro, which seeks
to lay down the law as to how this new technological miracle must be used by
the hard-pressed teacher to resolve all his problems. What follows is based on
practical experience of CALL, not only at university level, but with teachers
groups and a research project investigating the feasibility and desirability of
extending the role of the computer in modern language teaching in schools.
1. What sort of response to his book does the writer expect from teachers?
A.
B.
C.
D.

Amused.
Hostile.
Frightened.
Cautious.

2. According to the writer, many politicians believe that

A.
B.
C.
D.

computers are expensive and irrelevant.

it is dangerous to rely on computers.
a knowledge of computers is essential.
only a few pupils will benefit from computers.

3. The writer claims that the attitude of the anti-computer lobbyists is

A. understandable.
B. astonishing.
C. distressing.
D. contemptible.
4. What is the authors stated aim in writing the book?
A.
B.
C.
D.

To
To
To
To

examine the past use of CALL in schools.

encourage students to make use of CALL.
strengthen interest in CALL among teachers.
weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of CALL.

5. To which expected criticism from teachers does the writer reply in the last
paragraph?
A.
B.
C.
D.

He is uncritical of CALL.
CALL is more suitable for university students.
The research done on CALL is inadequate.
His knowledge of CALL is too theoretical.