Part A. Reading Comprehension.

Read the following text:

Popular Social Media Sites Harm Young People's Mental Health
Four of the five most popular forms of social media harm young peoples mental health, with
Instagram the most damaging, according to research by two health organisations.
The survey which the Royal Society of Publick Health undertook concluded that the four
platforms have a negative effect because they can exacerbate childrens and young peoples
body image worries, and worsen bullying, sleep problems and feelings of anxiety, depression,
loneliness, self-loathing and even the risk of them committing suicide.
Instagram emerged with the most negative score. The health groups accused it of deepening
young people's feelings of inadequacy and anxiety. It rated badly for seven of the 14 measures,
particularly its impact on sleep, body image and fear of missing out and also for bullying and
feelings of anxiety, depression and loneliness. However, young people cited its upsides too,
including self-expression, self-identity and emotional support.
Youtube scored very badly for its impact on sleep but positively in nine of the 14 categories,
notably awareness and understanding of other peoples health experience, self-expression,
loneliness, depression and emotional support.
Shirly Cramer, chief executive of the organisation demands tough measures to make social
media less of a wild west when it comes to young peoples mental health and wellbeing. Social
media firms should bring in a pop-up image to warn young people that they have been using it a
lot, while Instagram and similar platforms should alert users when photographs of people have
been digitally manipulated, Cramer said.
Tom Madders, its director of campaigns and communications of the charity Young Minds
believes that prompting young people about heavy usage and signposting on a platform that
they identify with could help many young people.
Adapted from The Guardian, 19 May 2017

I. Answer the following questions using your own words but taking into account
the information in the text. (2 points: 1 point each)

a. What happens to young people when they use most social networks, according to the
survey?

b. Did the participants of the survey only talk about the negative aspects of Instagram?

II. Are the following statements true (T) or false (F)? Identify the part of the text
that supports your answer by copying the exact passage on the answer sheet. (1.5
point: 0.5 each)

a. Instagram and Snapchat are the worst social media for mental health.

b. Youtube can't harm people's feelings.

c. People may want to die after using certain social media.

III. Find a synonym for each of the four words below from these six options: (1
point: 0.25 each)

self-loathing deepening upsides undertook tough prompting

a. advising

b. strong

c. advantages

d. started

IV. Choose a, b, or c, in each question below. Only one choice is correct. (1.5 points:
0.5 each)

1. Youtube can affect...

a. sleep.

b. depression.

c. people's health.

2. Shirly Cramer believes that...

a. the fact that platforms like Instagram let their users manipulate their pictures is a huge
mistake.

b. it would be useful to warn young people that they have been using social media too
much.

c. alerting users when they upload their photos, since they can be criticized.

3. Tom Maddlers believes that...

a. it would be useful to remind young people the dangers of the social media.

b. using social media a lot could help a lot of young people.

c. heavy usage of social media may help people feel identified with other people.

Part B. Composition (130 to 150 words approximately) (4 points)

n your opinion, what are the advantages and disadvantages of social networks?