ESCOLA SECUNDÁRIA IBN MUCANA

20 anos ao serviço da Educação - 1988/2008

Ano Lectivo
2008/2009 Reading test - 10th grade
Teacher :
March 2009
Name :
Number : Class: 10º ____
MARKS:

Part I : Reading

Read the following text attentively.

Technology in schools

Is technology in schools the future or just a fad?

It’s still unclear if computers upgrade academics. If computers are the biggest
tools used by the 21st century teacher, then Lee Hansen is a role model. Equipped
with a giant computer screen mounted where a blackboard could be, he guided his
students one day last school year through a Web-based lesson in science, joining
them at tables stacked with laptops.
Technology abounds in the science teacher’s classroom at Central Middle
School in Waukesha, thanks largely to state funding and a tax increase approved
by local voters in 2001.
“It’s something that I love, and I see a lot of value in it,” Hansen said of his use
of technology. “You could probably walk around school and find someone that’s
not sure, and that’s fine. But I think we really need to expose our kids to it because
they see it all the time.”
For the past decade, the largess of government has caused a technological
explosion in Wisconsin public schools. Hundreds of millions of dollars have helped
equip the average school with at least one computer for every three students.
With the expansion phase mostly over, phase two is just beginning. For many,
this phase could be entitled “Now what?”
Even as schools have tried to add wiring, expanded their electrical
capabilities, multiplied computer inventories and trained staff, they have strained
to demonstrate that it improves academic performance. In addition, for as many
teachers like Hansen, there are more who only occasionally touch the technology
in their classrooms.
Now, with many of the state and federal funds that helped spread technology
through the nation’s classrooms, school officials are forced to decide whether the
promise of technology is worth the sacrifice.
“We don’t have a lot of proof that this works,” said Neah Lohr, the former
director of the informational media and technology team for the state Department
of Public Instruction. “Certainly students like the technology. That’s not the
question.”
By Amy Hetzner, posted Aug. 20, 2005
www.jsonline.com/story
(abridged and slightly adapted)
A. Scan the text and find evidence for the following. (12 points)
1. Lee Hansen used the internet to give a science lesson.
2. Both the government and locals helped equip Central Middle School in
Waukesha with technology.
3. Not all people working in the school think technology is useful in the
classroom.
4. A lot of money has been spent to provide Wisconsin public schools with
computers.
5. Some teachers hardly use the new technological resources in their lessons.

B. Find the words in the text that mean the following. Paragraph
numbers are given in brackets. (24 points)
1. promote (para. 1) __________________________________________________________
2. filled with (para. 1) ________________________________________________________
3. exists in great numbers or quantities (para. 2) ______________________________
4. rise (para. 2) _______________________________________________________________
5. the act of being generous with money (para. 4)
______________________________
6. made an effort (para. 6) ____________________________________________________

C. Based on the text, give complete answers to these questions. (37

points)

1. Who is Lee Hansen?

_____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
___

2. Why did technology spread through the nation’s classrooms?

_____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
___

3. What does Neah Lohr think about the use of technology in school?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_

4. Give another title to the text and explain your choice.

_____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
___
 ESCOLA SECUNDÁRIA IBN MUCANA
20 anos ao serviço da Educação - 1988/2008
Ano Lectivo
2008/2009 Writing test - 10th grade
Teacher :
March 2009
Name :
Number : Class: 10º ____
MARKS:

PART II – WRITING (language study and text production)

A.1. Choose from the box below the conjunctions that best fits the space in each of these sentences
(according to its meaning in brackets):

if and although so or when as since but because

1.1 I can see the advances of such a technological-based system ________ I am not completely certain
of its impact on social relationships. (contrast)
1.2 I’ll be more interested in studying ________ my school provides students with more new
technologies. (condition)

2. Is this sentence ACTIVE or PASSIVE?

Sentence: I learned a lot in those days… ________________________

3. Turn into Passive:

3.1. Internet-based learning gains lots of supporters every day.
Lots of supporters _____________________________________________________________
3.2. This student made his own lesson plan yesterday.
His own lesson plan ____________________________________________________________

4. Turn into Active:

4.1. Long relaxing hours were spent by the author at his home years ago.
The author ____________________________________________________________________
4.2. Online education is accepted by many people today.
Many people __________________________________________________________________

B. Select ONE topic to write a text on it (100-120 words) [75 marks]

1. Write a descriptive article with the following title: What will schools of the future be
like?

2. You are a student in the year 2121. You keep a secret diary where you note down all your
impressions and feelings about your daily life (especially about surprising events). Write a page of
your diary describing one day in 2121.