HKAL 2001 USE OF ENGLISH

ADVANCED SUPPLEMENTARY LEVEL

Section A Listening Test

This year’s paper

This year’s listening paper continued the initiatives of the 1999 and 2000
papers i.e. widening the range of task types used, as well as increasing the
visual attractiveness of the paper. This involved using items constructed
around pictures, maps and diagrams and task types including note taking,
table completion and multiple choice. The crime-related topic was thought to
be of interest to Hong Kong students and something that they could relate to
as part of everyday life.

Following the problems encountered with the 1999 paper, no authentic

material was used on the tape. However, semi-scripted/semi-spontaneous
speech was used to generate the last 17 items in the paper. Performance on
these items did not significantly differ from the fully scripted items and
neither candidates nor markers commented on any special difficulties
encountered in this section. It is the belief of the moderation committee that
the semi-scripted section should provide a degree more ‘naturalness’ in both
the delivery and the content of what is said.

Performance statistics

The mean score of the test was 49% and the standard deviation was 20.1%,
compared to 50% and 18% respectively in 2000.

Markers’ comments

The markers commented on various aspects of the paper. Their findings are
summarised below:

The paper as a whole

A large majority of the markers judged both Part 1 and Part 2 of the paper to
be at about the right level of difficulty, while considering Part 2 to be more
challenging than Part 1.

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Candidates’ performance

Part 1 : While generally finding candidates’ performance adequate, markers

commented on candidates’ failure to follow instructions or make use
of headings for help, lack of grammaticality, poor handwriting, and
failure to use context or apply their common sense to make sense of
unknown or problematic words. Several also commented on
students’ problems with sequencing tasks.

Part 2 : Markers’ comments were generally similar to those for Part 1.

Additional comments referred to candidates’ omissions of key
grammatical elements in their answers (e.g. modals, plurals,
subjects), their use of abbreviated or ICQ forms in their answers and
their problems with paraphrasing. They also found that Part 2 was
more difficult than Part 1, though not to a problematic degree.

Markers frequently commented on candidates’ poor spelling in both

parts. They attributed this to various causes : straightforward poor
spelling, confusion of words with similar sounds e.g. log v lock,
access v assess, mishearing words and not applying meaning-making
strategies to working out what the correct word might be.

Recommendations

Markers made many suggestions for feedback to schools. These included a

greater focus in teaching on spelling, pronunciation, dictation, neat
handwriting, note taking, paraphrasing, grammaticality, vocabulary extension,
the importance of reading headings and instructions carefully, and of proof
reading. Many markers also suggested that students should be encouraged to
deduce meaning from context, to use their common sense/knowledge of the
world to make sense of what they hear, to expose themselves to a much
greater range of natural language use through radio, TV, reading,
conversation; and to broaden their knowledge of the world.

Conclusion

The statistical data on candidates’ performance and the markers’ comments

indicate that this year’s test achieved its aims with respect to the testing of
various listening skills as well as the effective discrimination between
candidates of different abilities.

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Section B Writing

Introduction

Section B is an examination of students’ abilities in discursive and

argumentative writing. Typical topics over recent years have included
educational issues, current affairs, and matters of universal concern. This year,
a total of 129 markers judged 35,156 writing papers. The vast majority of
markers judged all four questions to be suitable for candidates. All in all, the
response of markers to the paper as a whole was extremely positive. The
popularity of questions varied somewhat, but there was generally a good
spread of answers over the four questions, with question 3 proving the most
popular.
Table 1
The popularity of essay questions and general comments

Question Popularity General Comments

(1) Bullying at school 23% Candidates’ performance varied,
with some students restricting the
discussion to triad-related issues,
rather than the broader issue of
bullying as a whole.
(2) Christmas 17% Some markers were disappointed in
celebrations in the limited range of ideas that were
China expressed in the discussion of this
topic.
(3) Living together 46% This was by far the most popular
before marriage topic, attracting a wide range of
argumentative responses, some
liberal in attitude, but many quite
conservative. Many markers thought
that this question was the ‘most
suitable’ of the four.
(4) Suggesting ways 14% This was the least popular of the
of achieving racial questions, but the better students
harmony in Hong were able to write well on this topic.
Kong Some candidates chose to discuss
discrimination in societies such as
the USA, perhaps finding it difficult
to come to terms with the issues in
Hong Kong.
Problems with individual questions

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Question 1
– Many candidates restricted the discussion to the issue of ‘triads’ in
schools.
– Some candidates did not comprehend the word ‘bully’.

Question 2
– Some candidates wrote on the issue of Christmas generally, with limited
reference to China.
– Many candidates seemed to be ignorant of the religious significance of
Christmas.

Question 3
– Many markers commented on the use of a limited range of arguments,
otherwise there seemed to be few problems with this question.

Question 4
– Many markers noted that candidates seemed to have only a partial grasp
of what is meant by ‘discrimination’.
– This was the least popular question, which perhaps demonstrated that
candidates are not familiar with social issues of this kind.

Language errors

As in previous years, the weaker candidates’ compositions contained a high

frequency of language errors, including spelling, vocabulary, tense/aspect, use
of passives, the use of connectors, word order, etc. The issue of spelling
errors was highlighted in many markers’ reports, indicating that this remains a
major problem, with even relatively common vocabulary items being
regularly misspelt.

Memorisation

Very few memorised answers were reported this year. This is perhaps an
indication of the ingenuity of the moderation committee in devising questions
that do not easily enable ‘anticipation’ or the use of pre-learnt model essays.

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Conclusion

Overall, the marking of the examination was once again carried out smoothly
with the help of the Assistant Examiners and the markers. No major problems
surfaced, and markers’ reports were overwhelmingly positive.

Section C Reading and Language Systems

General comments

The mean percentage correct for the entire 2001 Section C was 51 compared
to 49 in 2001.

In general, the candidates performed quite satisfactorily on the multiple-

choice sections of the paper (i.e. reading comprehension, cloze and theme)
with a mean percentage correct of 60. The mean percentage correct for the
remainder, non-multiple-choice sections of the paper was 43. Candidates’
performance was least satisfactory for the summary cloze (mean percentage
correct, 40) and for the proof-reading/editing (mean percentage correct, 38).
All sections of the paper discriminated very well between the better and
weaker candidates.

Part 1 — Reading Comprehension, Questions 1–18

The reading passage leant itself well to asking good comprehension questions.
Although the general topic of the passage (the environment) is familiar to
virtually all candidates, the underlying ideas in the passage are very different
from those that are generally-accepted views. Most people would assume that
our environment is generally worsening year by year; the main thrust of this
reading passage is that, in fact, the environment is improving and has been
doing so for the past century or so. Because of the familiarity with the
general topic, the passage contains vocabulary which should have generally
been accessible to candidates. However, in view of the unusual ‘slant’ on a
familiar topic, candidates could not answer questions based on their prior
knowledge, but rather had to answer them based on a successful reading of
the passage.

Candidates will generally find it most helpful to first read through the passage
quickly to determine the general theme or slant of the article. Paying
attention to the title also can help. In the case of the 2001 passage, the title
‘Our durable planet’ indicates that the article is at least fairly positive about

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the Earth’s ability to withstand environmental degradation. And a reading of
the first paragraph would show that the writer is optimistic about the
environment. Being aware of this ‘optimistic attitude’ should help candidates
answer questions 1, 2, and 9.

The most difficult question was Question 15 (37% correct, key B). This is a
good example of a vocabulary question which candidates should be able to
answer even if they do not know the vocabulary item(s) (in Question 15,
‘scourges of the environment’ [lines 79–80]). A careful reading of the
previous sentence would show that the writer feels that governments could
improve the environment by ‘reducing certain subsidies’ and ‘eliminating tax
benefits’. Therefore the writer certainly regards subsidies and tax benefits as
bad for the environment. Hence the answer to Q.15 must be B., ‘enemies of
the environment.’ No other option would be logical given the preceding
sentence.

The only other question which proved difficult was Question 5 (50% correct,
key A). This is a reference question asking what the words ‘The same’ (line
29) refer to. The text reads:

Thus, prices for energy and minerals have fallen in real terms
during the century. The same is true for food.

Clearly ‘the same’ (thing) refers to the whole of the preceding sentence, so
option A ‘real prices falling over time’ is the best answer. Some candidates
(26%) thought the answer was B (‘raw materials not running out’). Although
the first sentence in the paragraph does say ‘Raw materials have not run
out ……’ there are four intervening sentences before ‘The same’. It is rare
for reference words to refer across such large chunks of text.

Part 2 — Language Systems

Multiple–choice Cloze, Questions 19–35

The text was a newspaper report of an attempt to clone a wooly mammoth

from DNA extracted from a 20,000 year old frozen specimen found in Siberia.
For those candidates who did not know what a wooly mammoth was, a
picture of the animal was provided.

The mean percentage correct was a healthy 56. The four questions on which
candidates fared most poorly were Q.20 (38% correct, key D), Q.21 (38%
correct, key D), Q.24 (36%, key A) and Q.25 (31%, key B). Question 22 was
deleted from the paper because post-examination analysis revealed that it did
not discriminate well between stronger and weaker candidates.

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Question 20 reads as follows:

It is hoped that the mother will give birth to (20) baby mammoth.

A. alive
B. a life
C. living
D. a live

The answer would have to consist of two words: an indefinite article (‘a’ or
‘an’) plus an adjective in the pattern of the following sentence: ‘The man
bought a healthy adult dog.’ Therefore, the answer to Q.20 must be either B
or D, and since ‘life’ can only be used as a noun, the correct answer is D. ‘a
live’ baby mammoth.

For Question 21, the answer must be a verb form to show what the ‘freezing
conditions’ did to the mammoth (‘it’). The verb needs to be active voice
(hence not A. ‘may be preserved’) and past tense (hence not B. ‘preserve’ or
C. ‘to preserve’). Thus the key is D. ‘may have preserved’.

Question 24 reads:

‘Recently it (the mammoth) (24) from its resting place …… to ice caves
in Khatanga.’

A. was flown
B. has flown
C. had flown
D. flew

The key here was A. ‘was flown’, as a passive voice is needed. A

‘mammoth’ cannot propel itself in the air or fly. Thus we either need an agent
as subject, such as ‘The scientists flew the mammoth to ice caves in
Khatanga’ or the passive. As option A is the only passive option it is clearly
the key. (This is, of course complicated in light of the fact that even though
people cannot actually fly, we can say ‘The scientists flew to the ice caves in
Khatanga’ meaning they took an aeroplane. But in this case, the scientists
would have actively made the journey; they would not have been transported
by others.)

For Question 25, the present participle, ‘weighing’ is the key. About half of
the candidates chose option A. ‘weighed’, the past participle. Candidates

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should note the common use of the present participle in sentences like: ‘The
cat, looking sleepy, jumped onto the bed.’ or ‘He caught a fish weighing five
kilograms.’

Part 2 — Theme exercise, Questions 36–49

The theme exercise this year was a newspaper article about Hong Kong and
Macau. The candidates did very well on this section of the paper with a mean
percentage correct of 55.

A most important aspect of this exercise is for the candidate to correctly work
out the general view of the writer or slant of the article. It is probably a good
idea to try to initially read through the several paragraphs first without writing
down answers to make sure the slant has been identified correctly. In this
year’s article, ‘Macau leads the way’ the ‘correct’ theme was the fact that
Macau has been much more successful than Hong Kong in preserving its
historical buildings. Candidates might have mistakenly thought the theme
concerned crime or gambling, as incorrect options in the first four questions
included these themes. However a reading of the second paragraph with its
discussion of ‘micro-preservation’, ‘beautification’, ‘newly-painted pink,
yellow and white buildings’, ‘pavements laid out in traditional designs’, etc.
should have allowed the candidate to correctly identify the overall topic of the
article.

Three items proved particularly problematic. For Question 40 (21% correct,

key B), many able candidates chose the incorrect option C (39%). In fact, the
sentence ‘It is true Hong Kong has a significant number of traditional villages
that could be restored in the same way’ would seem a true statement and in
keeping with the theme of the article. However, the sentence which follows
in the text makes it clear that option C is not correct: ‘But they do exist, ……’.

Question 44 (26% correct, key A) is a good example of a rhetorical question.

This is a device used in writing or speech in which the writer asks a question
not to genuinely find an answer but to make a point. The writer assumes the
answer will be so obvious that everyone will know it. In the case of Question
44, the assumed answer is ‘No one wanted to preserve a house, however
beautiful, when a fortune could be made by putting up a tower on its site.’

Question 47 (26% correct, key B) was answered correctly by the stronger

candidates, but 50% of the candidates went for option D. However, option D
does not include a verb, which is necessary for the correct answer.

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Part 2 — Summary Cloze, Questions 50–68

The performance on the summary cloze exercise was disappointing this year
with a mean percentage correct of only 40.

In this summary cloze exercise, candidates may in some cases find the exact
‘answer’ directly in the text of Version 1 and this can be copied directly to the
text in Version 2. These tend to be the easiest types of items: for example,
Question 51 (‘regulate’, 58% correct), Q.56 (‘major smugglers, 63% correct),
Q.61 (‘seized’, 62% correct); Q.62 (‘doses’, 46% correct), and Q.66
(‘supervision’, 69% correct). Oddly, however, two of the most difficult
questions involved direct copying from Version 1 to Version 2: Q.52 (‘larger
problems’, 7% correct) and Q.65 (‘packaging’, 20% correct).

Generally, more difficult items involve some changes in the words from
Version 1 to make them ‘fit’ grammatically into Version 2. For example,
Q.57 (18% correct) required changing the verb ‘shut down’ to the gerund
‘shutting down’, Q.58 (17% correct) necessitated changing the verb ‘raided’
to the noun ‘raids’, Q.64 (24% correct) required changing the past tense verb
‘obtained’ to the infinitive ‘to obtain’, Q.67 (34% correct) necessitated
changing ‘controls over quality’ to ‘quality control’, and Q.68 (28% correct)
necessitated changing the noun ‘contamination’ to the past participle
‘contaminated’.

In the case of a few questions, candidates have to think up a completely ‘new’

word or words. For example, in Q.50 (17% correct), they had to use ‘other
countries’ or ‘foreign countries’ in Version 2 to convey the idea of ‘Mexico,
Switzerland, Britain, New Zealand and elsewhere’ in Version 1. For Q.54
(19% correct), candidates read in Version 1 that ‘American officials plan to
use the Thai operation as a model for cooperation’ and had to conclude that
‘They are very happy/pleased/satisfied with the cooperation they have
received from Thai authorities.’

Candidates must remember to pay particular attention to both the content of

their answers and to their grammatical accuracy.

Part 2 — Matching Exercise, Questions 69–80

Candidates did well on the Matching Exercise this year with a mean
percentage correct of 56. The items in the 2001 paper all were about a testing
laboratory, ACTS.

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Candidates should remember when attempting to match the pairs that they
need to pay close attention to both the information conveyed and grammatical
‘matches’, especially reference words (such as pronouns, determiners, definite
articles, adverbs, etc.). The questions which candidates did most poorly on
this year provide good examples of items where the grammatical components
should have helped in finding the correct ‘match’. For example, Q.70 (46%
correct), Column A ‘About 70% of ACTS’s business’, Column B, E. ‘The
remainder of its work ……’; Q.73 (44% correct), Column A ‘ACTs carries
out specialised chemical analyses ……’. Column B, K. ‘These, together with
toy-testing, air, quality monitoring and environmental testing, ……’; Q.74
(46% correct) Column A ‘One example of ACTS’s work is the checks they
perform on new toy designs.’ Column B, M. ‘These help ensure the product
will not choke a child, ……’, and Q.77 (45% correct), Column A ‘The
positions will require daily sample preparation and analyses.’ Column B, O.
‘Successful applicants will also have to carry out data review and write
reports ……’.

Part 2 — Proofreading Exercise, Questions 81–98

Candidates’ performance on the proofreading exercise was not very

satisfactory, with a mean percentage correct of 38. In fact, candidates do
usually find it quite difficult to detect and correct mistakes in written texts.
They often ‘correct’ things that do not actually need correcting while letting
grammatical errors stand. However, it is very important for learners of a
language to develop the ability to spot and correct written mistakes. This is a
skill which is especially useful in improving the learner’s own written work.

The three most problematic items in this year’s Proofreading Exercise were
Q.93 (8% correct), Q.94 (15% correct) and Q.98 (13% correct). Q.93
required candidates to change the word ‘sales’ to ‘salesmen / saleswomen /
salespersons / salespeople’. It is a common mistake in Hong Kong to refer to
people involved in merchandising as ‘sales’.

Q.94 required candidates to delete the preposition ‘of’ so the phrase correctly
reads ‘seems to lack integrity ……’. When ‘lack’ is used as a verb (e.g. ‘to
lack’) no preposition is needed, as a noun (e.g. ‘lack’) a preposition is needed
(e.g. ‘a lack of integrity’) and as a participle (‘lacking’) a preposition is also
needed (e.g. lacking in integrity’.)

Q.98 involves inserting the preposition ‘of’ so the phrase reads ‘within three
days of purchase’. This is a very common standard phrase which is found in
sales agreements and return policies.

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Conclusions and recommendations for candidates

1. All of the exercises in Section C involve reading, so you should

make every effort to improve your reading skills. You need to work
on intensive reading (that is, concentrated reading) as well as on
skimming (to determine major themes and ideas) and scanning (to
locate specific information). You can improve these types of reading
subskills with the help of teachers and textbooks.

However, the best overall way to get better at reading is (believe it or

not) to read extensively. Just as the best way to improve your
swimming is to swim more and more (though coaching can also
help), likewise reading more and more will help improve your
reading skills. And don’t worry, you need not read ‘serious’ books
or exam practice books; virtually anything in English will do:
newspapers, magazines, comic books, love stories, articles about
music, films, etc. etc. If the topic is something you are interested in,
that is the best type of reading for you. You probably will not be
aware of what you are learning or how you are improving, but you
will be. You will increase your reading speed, you will learn new
vocabulary by guessing what new words means; you will learn
collocations (vocabulary words which are normally used together);
you will even ‘learn’ grammar (by having patterns and forms
imprinted on your subconscious).

2. All of the exercises in Section C either directly or indirectly involve

knowledge of how English is used. You do not need to be able to
explain grammatical rules or name parts of speech or identify verb
tenses. What you do need to know is how to correctly use the
language (‘Use of English. Right?). Obviously textbooks and
grammar books and teachers are very useful in helping you to learn
about grammar. And you will probably want to know some of the
rules just to give you something to hang on to — to help build up
your confidence. But again, the best way to improve your ability to
use English correctly is widespread exposure to the language. And
the cheapest and most accessible exposure is reading.

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Section D Oral English

General comments

This examination tests the candidates’ ability to give a brief presentation and
to participate in a group discussion. Candidates were generally familiar with
the format and procedures of the examination and seemed to benefit from
changes in the time arrangements for the group discussion. On the whole,
candidates gave coherent and confident presentations, initiated conversations
with some ease, spoke audibly and asked appropriate and relevant questions.
The very weakest candidates were deficient in these areas, while the stronger
ones demonstrated a mastery of all aspects of oral presentation and discussion.

Part 1 Individual Presentation

(a) Time

Candidates are given 10 minutes to read the passage, makes notes and
prepare for the oral presentation. As always, a number of the
candidates copied parts of the passage onto their notecards instead of
writing notes in their own words. Candidates should be aware that a
presentation containing large chunks from the original text will not
receive high marks.

(b) Passages

Passages are approximately 300 words long. The length gives

candidates enough material for their presentations while deterring
them from extensive copying or attempts at memorization. This year,
examiners were generally satisfied with the subject matter and
language level of the passages. A lack of familiarity with the
individual topics did not seem to be a particular problem this year. It
should be borne in mind that this is not a test of comprehension.
Candidates are rated on how can they express themselves in English,
not on how comprehensively they can reproduce all the content points
in the passage.

(c) Problems

Most examiners maintained that pronunciation of individual words

was still the candidates’ greatest problem. Examiners cited numerous
examples of candidates being unable to distinguish between common
English words: ‘flat’ and ‘fat’, ‘waiter’ and ‘writer’, ‘hotel’ and

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 ‘hostel’, for example. On the other hand, candidates should be aware
that they are not required to pronounce proper nouns with which they
are unfamiliar. Alternative forms of reference are usually given in the
text. There are no specific ‘testing points’ in this paper.

A number of examiners remarked that too many candidates spent a lot of time
reading from their notecards, rather than making a presentation in a relaxed
manner. It is probably unrealistic to expect an examination candidate making
a presentation in front of five strangers to be at ease without devising a
strategy for making presentations which can appear formulaic to examiners.
Candidates, however, should at least attempt to look at the other candidates
from time to time. Examiners also noted that the intonation of many
candidates could be improved.

Part 2 Group Discussion

(a) Time

For the first time this year, candidates were given two minutes after
the individual presentations to prepare for the group discussion
(which was reduced to 10 minutes). This gave the candidates a
chance to relax and organize their thoughts before embarking on the
group discussion.

Examiners responded very favourably to the new time arrangement,

feeling that it led to more stimulating and less forced discussions.

(b) Discussion topics

Every effort is made to ensure that the topics for discussion are at an
appropriate level for the candidates and that the tasks are clearly
defined.

This year it was felt that the topics were sufficiently accessible and
the tasks manageable and that there were fewer ‘specialist’ subjects
than in previous years, which have caused problems for candidates
before.

(c) Problems

Many candidates had problems forming questions and some tended to

rely on ‘passing the buck’ to other candidates with questions such as
‘what is your opinion?’, ‘what do you think?’ etc. These are, of

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 course, perfectly legitimate questions in a discussion, but should not
be the sum total of the candidates’ interaction. Contributing ideas is
also important and properly formed questions are essential elements
of a good discussion.

General recommendations

While a rehearsed technique obviously provides a platform for giving

presentations and joining in group discussions, candidates should endeavour
to take a more natural approach to these tasks if possible. Fluency can be
inhibited by an over-reliance on formal modes of presentation and group
discussions are unlikely to become lively if too much stress is placed on
organizing what is said. Pronunciation also needs to be attended to.
Candidates should take heart, however, in the commendable improvements
that have been made in oral skills in schools in the past few years.

Section E Practical Skills for Work & Study

The topic for this year’s paper was an educational exchange between a school
in Hong Kong (Hong Kong College) and one in mainland China (Yishan
College).

The candidates had to assume the role of a student (Joey Tang) at the college
who had been asked by a teacher to report on the exchange, called Project Fan.
They had to write a report about the project for the school newspaper (HKC
News), complete a chart of problems experienced during the trip and prepare a
slide for a section of a talk about the project, outlining the unexpected
benefits of the trip.

Candidates had a variety of sources from which to select information to

complete the tasks. There were extracts from the minutes of meetings, a
teacher’s journal and a guidebook on China, also newspaper articles, letters,
an itinerary, memos, comments from a questionnaire, excerpts from daily
journals and a transcript from a radio interview.

Task 1

In Task One, candidates (as Joey Tang) had been asked by their Native
English Speaking teacher (Miss Stewart) to write an article for the school
newspaper about Project Fan. In any writing task, it is important for the
writer to ask himself/herself certain questions in order to produce a focussed
and relevant piece of writing. For this task, candidates needed to consider

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who they were (a school student who had been a member of the trip and
therefore had first-hand experience) and why they were writing (to inform
people about the trip and encourage them to participate in the future). They
also had to realise that the event had already taken place so they would be
using past tenses to record the relevant information requested by the teacher.
In spite of careful guidelines many candidates included irrelevant information
and did not maintain a consistent stance with regard to the writer and time
references.

Candidates were given specific information to include but many ignored this
and provided the reader with lots of general information about Jiangxi
province, (not just the history), and gave every detail of the itinerary, talking
about passing through immigration and taking a packed lunch for example,
rather than selecting the salient points. Many also misinterpreted the request
to give details of activities in addition to language classes and therefore
wrongly included information on the language classes themselves. In fact,
many answers reflected a cut and paste approach with little evidence of
selection or organisation of material. Candidates copied out vast amounts of
unnecessary material, which not only wasted time but also lost them marks
awarded for relevance.

Another problem with copying from the text was that candidates often
included the problems that had arisen during the trip, whereas Miss Stewart
had asked that such difficulties not be included as she wanted the article to be
positive in tone.

In general, candidates had problems with maintaining a consistent tense in

their writing. As the article was a report on a past trip, the simple past was
the tense that was mostly needed but for many, it was difficult to maintain the
time reference. Weaker candidates simply copied from the Data File, with no
adaptation, so much of the report wrongly included references to future events.
Such blind copying also led to confusion for the reader when, for example, no
adaptation was made and information was given about ‘our students’ and ‘our
school’s English language programme has been reduced’. In the Data File
such references referred to the school and students in China, whereas when
they were copied directly in the report they seemed to refer to Hong Kong
College and its students. Such lack of thought in adapting references led to
content points being lost.

Markers also noted the inability of many candidates to group and organise
material so that it was easy for the reader to follow. Candidates had to
understand that the purpose of the task was to select relevant material for the

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reader and present it in a coherent way, not just copy out material and leave
the reader to sort it out.

There were a number of spelling errors noted by markers. Candidates have to

realise that ‘approximate’ spelling is often not sufficient to convey correct
information. For example, talking about a ‘hostel’ and a ‘hotel’ are very
different as, is a reference to ‘conservation classes’ instead of ‘conversation
classes’.

In general, it seems that candidates need to consider the task and audience
more carefully and spend more time reading the rubrics and selecting material,
rather than thoughtlessly copying information from the Data File.

Task 2

In Task Two, candidates had to complete a chart of problems that had been
experienced during the trip. This task required candidates not only to explain
each problem but also to give a specific suggestion or recommendation for
future trips, by writing a complete grammatical sentence beginning with the
words provided. They then had to explain what the difficulty could be or the
disadvantage of the suggestion or recommendation they had written out.

Some of the answers showed that not all candidates understood the headings
given. Markers noted that some candidates did not seem to understand
‘accommodation’ and ‘duration of visit’. There was also confusion between
the trip to Yongfeng in general and the field trip to Ruijin. In giving the
details about a problem, candidates had to give sufficient information for the
problem to be fully understood by the reader. For example, in point 33,
concerning the conversation classes, it was necessary to convey the
information that the classes were ‘too big for the Hong Kong College students
to manage’. Simply saying that the classes were too big did not clearly show
where the problem specifically lay. Other answers lacked important details
and therefore conveyed incorrect information. For example, in point 45,
concerning the train journey, saying ‘there were no seats on the train’ is
different from saying there were ‘no seats for us/our students on the train’.

The second part of the task, which required students to produce a complete
grammatical sentence starting with the words provided, caused a variety of
problems.

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Many candidates were unable to supply the correct structure continuing from
the words provided:

* X I suggest to go to Ji’an instead. (√ I suggest going to Ji’an instead.)

X Why don’t we going in summer? (√ Why don’t we go in summer?)

Others failed to understand the need to adapt material in the Data File so that
it made sense in their answers. For example, for points 38 and 39, many
candidates copied ‘We could have special history lessons at Hong Kong
College to prepare them.’ In this context ‘them’ made no sense, as the word
to which it referred in the original text was missing.

Many candidates lost marks due to careless mistakes such as failing to make
nouns plural (X ‘some student’ and X ‘reserve seat’) and including or
excluding prepositions and articles (X ‘Why don’t we go to there in summer?’
and X ‘We ought to stay in hotel.’)

Other candidates made statements that conveyed the wrong meaning. For
example,

X ‘We ought to stay in another hotel.’ (when in fact they had not stayed in a
hotel but a hostel).

In talking about the possible difficulty or disadvantage, as in the first part of

the question it was, important to give sufficient information to make the point
clearly. For point 36 it was necessary to make it clear that it was ‘difficult to
take more Hong Kong students’, not that there were not enough Hong Kong
students. For point 52, it was important to show that although there were
hotels, they were far away from Yishan College and for point 56, the answer
needed to show that a longer visit would interrupt study at Hong Kong
College.

In general, as mentioned above, candidates were careless with their use of

reference words and tended to copy from the Data File without considering
the sense of what they were saying. Some examples have been given above
and other problems occurred when details were given in one column using a
referent for which there was no corresponding information in an earlier
column to which it could refer. For example, often candidates would copy,
‘It

* An X indicates a wrong answer or an answer with a grammatical mistake.

2001-AS-UE
is not so important historically.’ as their answer to point 44, but there was no
noun given in the earlier answer to make sense of what ‘it’ referred to. This
illustrates yet again that thought and adaptation of language is required, not
merely the copying out of parts of the Data File.

Task 3

In Task Three candidates had to prepare a slide to use during a talk about
Project Fan which was to be given to the Parent Teacher Association. The
topic of the talk was ‘Unexpected Benefits of Project Fan’, that is, benefits
which were not anticipated when the project was planned. The information
had to show such unanticipated benefits gained by Yishan College, Yongfeng
Town and Hong Kong College and candidates had to form a complete
grammatical sentence beginning with the words given. They also had to write
a short paragraph as Joey Tang, showing the personal benefits that had been
gained.

Markers felt that the two main challenges for candidates in this task were
sifting the expected benefits from the unexpected benefits and writing
grammatically-correct English. Candidates again seemed to feel that copying
chunks from the Data File on related issues would serve the purpose whereas,
in fact, they lost marks if they included irrelevant information. The rubric
clearly stated ‘unexpected benefits’ and this is what was required, not all the
additional points that were mentioned. Points 67-70 caused problems for
many. Although some candidates recognised that one unexpected benefit was
that Hong Kong College students developed new friendships with other Hong
Kong College students, they did not express this clearly. Writing X ‘The
participating Hong Kong students developed friendships with other students.’
was not specific enough to convey the correct information as it was not clear
which students were being referred to. The second part of this question also
caused difficulties with few students recognising that an improvement in their
oral English was an unexpected benefit for Hong Kong College students who
had gone hoping only to improve their Putonghua.

Candidates clearly found it difficult to complete sentences correctly. They

used tenses inconsistently, had problems with the use of prepositions and
seemed unaware of the importance of correct referencing. The final
paragraph caused problems with few candidates able to continue from the
opening words, ‘In addition, I personally, ……’. The pronoun ‘I’ was often
repeated or a noun was used instead of a verb. When a verb was included, the
form was often incorrect, showing the inability of candidates to understand
and manipulate basic sentence patterns.

2001-AS-UE
General comments

Generally, candidates seemed to have sufficient time to complete all the tasks
although many wasted time copying indiscriminately from the Data File
instead of planning and thinking about the demands of the questions.

Markers expressed disappointment with the poor command of grammar

evident. Candidates need to think more carefully about basic points such as
tenses, subject-verb agreement, prepositions, and references if they are to
convey information clearly and accurately.

Markers felt that many candidates failed to consider the purpose of the
writing and the audience to whom it was addressed. There is a lot of
information for candidates to digest so they need to be able to reject details
that are irrelevant to the specified task and to avoid wholesale copying.

At a time when we are exposed to greater amounts of information in our daily

lives, the ability to read through and select information is clearly an important
one, as is the need to present that information to others. This can only be
achieved successfully if consideration is given to the purpose, the audience
and the message, and the information necessary to satisfy these criteria is
carefully selected.

2001-AS-UE