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English Test 114

Directions for Questions from 1 to 5:

The key we shall try to use to unlock the prison door is to say that a brain contains knowledge and information, written in its own language. This is
actually a very complicated statement. We may all think that we know what is meant by ‘information’, but it is really a very subtle concept, not easy
to analyze. The word is of course borrowed from ordinary speech, but we shall try to give it a more precise meaning that will allow us to say that all
life depends on a flow of information. Information is carried by physical entities, such as books or sound waves or brains, but it is not itself material.
Information in a living system is a feature of the order and arrangement of its parts, which arrangement provides the signs that constitute a ‘code’
or code are transmitted along suitable channels; they provide the control that helps to maintain the order that is the essence of life. So the
concepts of signs and information, and of coding and language, are closely related to the nature of life itself, and like life they are not simple at all.
We shall return several times to discuss them.

For the present we can work with the idea that to understand a strange language means to be able to translate the sounds heard or the words
written into one’s own language. (although ‘translation’ is not at all a simple concept either). So to understand the language of the brain we must
learn to recognize and interpret the elements of the script and the meanings of the signs in which it is written. Neuroscience is beginning to do this.
In this book I hope to show how the organization of the brain can be considered as the written script of the programs of our lives. So the important
feature of brains is not the material that they are made of but the information that they carry.

What neuroscience can do is to translate the language in which the brain programs are written into ordinary language. Since these are the
programs that produce the phenomena of human language we are not really escaping from our prison, but are as it were enlarging it. We are using
the analogies of language and of writing to understand the entities that produce them. As so often in the past, man, having invented an artifact (in
this case writing to help him with his life (by carrying information), is now trying to describe, himself in terms of his artifact.

However much wisdom we acquire, we shall remain limited human creatures. But I believe that such new knowledge of the brain of man enables us
greatly to expand our understanding of fundamental problems. We can give new meaning to concepts such as value, choice and decision and even
provide some help with problems of the aims and ends of life than trouble many people. We hope to gain from the discussion the power to give
richer, fuller use to such words. It may be that some of our deepest difficulties about the nature of mind, matter, and consciousness will turn out to
be products of the very structure of the brain.

These may seem excessive claims to make for results from study of the brain, which some people may think to be a subject that is pedestrian,
material, complicated, and even faintly disgusting. I hope to be able to reverse this view and to show that study of the brain reveals outstandingly
beautiful and intricate patterns, not only of matter but of information and of action, whose significance we can still perceive only dimly.

1. In the statement “Which some people may think to be a subject that is pedestrian, material, complicated, and even faintly disgusting.” What does
the word ‘pedestrian’ mean in the given context?

j Footslogger
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j Related to walking pedestals
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j Dull
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j Indolent
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j Prosaic
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2. In the statement “As so often in the past, man, having invented an artifact to help him with his life, is
now trying to describe himself in terms of his artifact.” What does the word ‘man’ allude to in the
overall context of the passage?

j Human mind
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j Human brain
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j Human consciousness
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j Creator
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j Artisan
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3. Which statement in the passage makes use of ‘metaphorical allusions’ in order to epitomize the author’s intellectual and logical dilemma of using
the analogies of language and of writing towards understanding human brain?

j Since these are the programs that produce the phenomena of human language we are not really escaping from our prison, but as it were
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enlarging it.
 j We are using the analogies of language and of writing to understand the entities that produce them.
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j However much wisdom we acquire, we shall remain limited human creatures.
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j These may seem excessive claims to make for results from study of the brain, which some people may think to be a subject that is pedestrian,
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material, complicated, and even faintly disgusting.
j As so often in the past, man, having invented an artifact to help him with his life, is now trying to describe himself in terms of his artifact.
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4. As per the passage, which of the following statements with regard to Neuroscience is untrue?

j It has already recognized and interpreted beyond doubt, the elements of the script and the meanings of the signs in which the language of
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the brain is written.
j It is trying to descramble the language in which the programs of brain are encrypted and render it into a lingo that is easy to comprehend.
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j It refutes the claims that the brain can be studied on the basis of the phenomena of human language that it has produced itself.
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j It claims to explain only those set of problems that relate to rational issues and not that related to matters such as values or even purpose of
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life.
j It considers brain as a reservoir of information written in a language that has been invented by the humans.
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5. All of the following statements can be attributed to the brain, except?

j The brain has outstandingly beautiful and intricate patterns whose significance is still perceived only faintly.
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j Information is carried by physical entities such as brains.
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j The elements of the script and the meanings of the signs of the language of the brain can be realized and interpreted in order to understand
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it.
j The intrinsic features of the brain can be impressed upon by the extrinsic signs and symbols.
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j The important feature of the brains is the material they are made up of.
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Directions for Questions from 6 to 10:

Analyze the statements given and provide an appropriate answer for the question that follow.

6. Industry experts expect improvements in job safety training programs to lead to safer work environments. A recent survey indicated, however, that
for manufacturers who improved job safety
training programs during the 1980s, the number of on-the-job accidents increased in the months following the imparting of improved training
programs.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy in the passage
above?

j A similar survey found that the number of on-the-job accidents remained constant after job safety training programs were improved in the
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transportation sector.
j Manufacturers tend to improve job safety training programs only when they are increasing the size of their workforce.
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j Manufacturers tend to improve job safety training programs only after they have noticed an increase in the number of on-thejob accidents.
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j It is likely that the increase in the number of on-the-job accidents experienced by many companies was not merely a random fluctuation.
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j Significant safety measures, such as protective equipment and government safety inspections, were in place well before the improvements in
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job safety training programs were undertaken.
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7. The number of airplanes equipped with a new anti-collision device has increased steadily during
the past two years. During the same period, it has become increasingly common for key information
about an airplane’s altitude and speed to disappear suddenly from air traffic controllers’ screens. The new anti-collision device, which operates at
the same frequency as air traffic radar, is therefore responsible for the sudden disappearance of key information.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument above?

j The new anti-collision device has already prevented a considerable number of mid-air collisions.
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j It was not until the new anti-collision device was introduced that key information first began disappearing suddenly from controller’s screens.
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j The new anti-collision device is scheduled to be moved to a different frequency within the next two to three months.
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j Key information began disappearing from controller’s screen three months before the new anti-collision device was first tested.
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j The sudden disappearance of key information from controller’s screen has occurred only at relatively large airports.
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8. Most antidepressant drugs cause weight gain. While dieting can help reduce the amount of weight gained as one takes such antidepressants,
some weight gain is unlikely to be preventable.

The information above most strongly supports which one of the following?

j A physician should not prescribe any antidepressant drug for an overweight patient.
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j People who are trying to lose weight should not ask their doctors for an antidepressant drug.
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j At least some patients gain weight as a result of taking antidepressant drugs.
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j The weight gain experienced by patients taking antidepressant drugs should be attributed to lack of dieting.
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j . All patients taking antidepressant drugs should diet to maintain their weight.
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9. Chandra: Hailey’s Comet, now in a part of its orbit relatively far from the Sun, recently flared brightly enough to be seen by telescope on earth. This
has never happened before, so such a flare must be highly unusual.
Surya: Nonsense. Usually no one bothers to observe comets when they are so far from the Sun. This flare was observed only because an
observatory was tracking Hailey’s Comet very carefully.

Surya challenges Chandra’s reasoning by

j Offering an alternative explanation for the evidence Chandra seeks to explain.

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j Drawing attention to an inconsistency between two of Chandra’s claims.
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j Presenting evidence that directly contradicts Chandra’s evidence.
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j Pointing out that Chandra’s use of the term “observed” is excessively vague.
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j Undermining some of Chandra’s evidence while agreeing with her conclusioUndermining some of Chandra’s evidence while agreeing with her
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conclusion.
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10. Prediction, the hallmark of natural sciences, appears to have been possible by reducing phenomena to mathematical expressions. Some social
scientists also want the power to predict accurately and assume they ought to perform the same reduction. But this would be a mistake, it would
neglect
data that are not easily mathematized and thereby would only distort the social phenomena.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the argument?

j The social sciences do not have as much predictive power as the natural sciences.
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j Mathematics plays a more important role in the natural sciences than it does in the social sciences.
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j Phenomena in the social sciences should not be reduced to mathematical formulae.
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j There is a need in the social sciences to improve the ability to predict.
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j Prediction is responsible for the success of the natural sciences.
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