Reading 1 ⇱
TECH NEWS
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has had a huge impact on education. Here are some examples from around the world.
To apply for a university or a job, secondary school students usually need to support their applications with a list of relevant qualifications and work experience. Thanks to AI, they can now effortlessly do that online. This app collects data from the learning and working experience that students upload onto the app. Then the data is sorted into sets of skills which students can use for their job or university applications.
AI chatbots are being used in many schools and universities around the world. They can help keep students engaged in their learning by providing a more interactive experience. These virtual tutors can explain concepts clearly, answer specific questions, and give feedback on homework. Students can seek support from AI chatbots during and after classes so that they can understand the lessons better. They can also create groups on chatbots to share ideas about projects and activities.
Schools in Hong Kong are bringing fascinating learning to the classroom through the power of virtual reality (VR). This new way of teaching helps students learn valuable skills, provides 'hands-on’ experiences when studying history or geography, and limits potential dangers of chemistry or physics experiments. Guided virtual tours transport students back in time to study the history of Hong Kong or take them to tropical forests to explore endangered species.
Experts in Israel have created a technology platform to support personalised learning. It collects data from students about what they know and do not know, analyses performances using AI, then offers them suitable assignments. This app has served as the main distance-learning platform for many Israeli secondary school students who are preparing for advanced examinations in physics. There are also thousands of chemistry and biology students who benefit from this software.
(Adapted from Global Success)
Reading 2 ⇱
The handling and delivery of mail has always been a serious business underpinned by the trust of the public in requiring timeliness, safety, and confidentiality. After early beginnings using horseback and stagecoach, and although cars and trucks later replaced stagecoaches and wagons, the Railway Mail Service still stands as one of America’s most resourceful and exciting postal innovations. This service began in 1832, but grew slowly until the Civil War. Then from 1862, by sorting the mail on board moving trains, the Post Office Department was able to decentralize its operations as railroads began to crisscross the nation on a regular basis, and speed up mail delivery. This service lasted until 1974. During peak decades of service, railway mail clerks handled 93% of all non-local mail and by 1905 the service had over 12,000 employers.
Railway Post Office trains used a system of mail cranes to exchange mail at stations without stopping. As a train approached the crane, a clerk prepared the catcher arm which would then snatch the incoming mailbag in the blink of an eye. The clerk then booted out the outgoing mailbag. Experienced clerks were considered the elite of the Postal Service’s employees, and spoke the pride of making the switch at night with nothing but the curves and feel of the track to warn them of an upcoming catch. They also worked under the greatest pressure and their jobs were considered to be exhausting and dangerous. In addition to regular demands of their jobs they could find themselves the victims of train wrecks and robberies.
As successful as it was, “mail-on-the-fly” still had its share of glitches. If they hoisted the train’s catcher arm too soon, they risked hitting switch targets, telegraph poles or semaphores, which would rip the catcher arm off the train. Too late, and they would miss an exchange.
(Adapted from https://idr.uin-antasari.ac.id/11164/10/LAMPIRAN.pdf)
Reading 3 ⇱
"The economic history of the United States", one scholar has written, "is the history of the rise and development of the capitalistic system". The colonists of the eighteenth century pushed forward what those of the seventeenth century have begun: the expansion and elaboration of an economy born in the great age of capitalist expansion.
Our excellent natural resources paved the way for the development of abundant capital to increase our growth. Capital includes the tools – such as: machines, vehicles, and buildings – that makes the outputs of labor and resources more valuable. But it also includes the funds necessary to buy those tools. If a society had to consume everything, it produced just to stay alive, nothing could be put aside to increase future productions. But if a farmer can grow more corn than his family needs to eat, he can use the surplus as seed to increase the next crop, or to feed workers who build tractors. This process of capital accumulation was aided in the American economy by our cultural heritage. Saving played an important role in the European tradition. It contributed to American’s motivation to put something aside today for the tools to buy tomorrow.
The great bulk of the accumulated wealth of America, as distinguished from what was consumed, was derived either directly or indirectly from trade. Though some manufacturing existed, its role in the accumulation of capital was negligible. A merchant class of opulent proportions was already visible in the seaboard cities, its wealth as the obvious consequence of shrewd and resourceful management of the carrying trade. Even the rich planters of tidewater Virginia and the rice coast of South Carolina finally depended for their genteel way of life upon the ships and merchants who sold their tobacco and rice in the markets of Europe. As colonial production rose and trade expanded, a business community emerged in the colonies, linking the provinces by lines of trade and identity of interest.
(Source: TOEFL Grammar Exercises)