TEXT 1
Interestingly, the concept of blended learning is not a new one and actually goes back to the 1960s when the PLATO system was first initialized by the University of Illinois and Control Data. At the time, the term used to describe it was "technology-based learning." Students were provided with minicomputers and connected to mainframes in an attempt to eliminate ILT. A wide range of coursework was made available to the learners that included elementary lessons and more advanced college learning materials. This technology-based training was not without its downsides. For this reason, by the next decade, the system evolved to live video courses broadcast by satellite connections.
Modern-day blended learning aims at providing a better educational experience to the average student. This system of education incorporates online tools with various traditional teaching methods so students can learn more efficiently. Educational institutions across the world including schools, colleges, and universities as well as corporate giants are now adopting the blended learning approach.
An average classroom will have an instructor relaying information in real-time to students that are also using laptops, computers, and other digital media with internet access. Similar to traditional ILT, classrooms are held in a fixed location according to a specific schedule, and the teacher dictates the pace of the coursework.
1. What is the topic of the passage?
A. Understanding blended learningB. Blended learning as the newest pattern of educationC. Students' choice of type of learningD. The scenario of blended learningE. The better education types
2. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. Blended learning is the most popular way of learning among present studentsB. The concept of blended learning is believed as one of the newest ones.C. PLATO system was first initialized in 1970sD. The technology-based learning aims at providing a better educational experience to students.E. Many organizations have applied a blended learning approach to their students
3. The word "evolved" in paragraph one means...
A. Moved fastB. Developed roughlyC. Developed graduallyD. Give offE. Differentiate
4. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
A. A statement followed by a questionB. An extended definitionC. A support followed by hypothesisD. A statement and its examplesE. A cause and effect
TEXT 2
In general, aquatic mammals tend to be larger than their closest land-bound relatives. The largest sea lions are twice as big as the largest bears, for example, and manatees outweigh their cat-size hyrax cousins by nearly 500 kilograms.
To find out why, researchers looked at the sizes of four different evolutionary groups of sea mammals—roughly 4000 living and 3000 fossil species—beginning with the time they diverged from their terrestrial relatives. Once they began aquatic life, these mammals all evolved toward larger sizes over the past 60 million years or so. Their land relatives, on the other hand, didn't trend toward any particular size, the team reports today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The scientists think this is because it's too chilly to survive in the ocean as a warm-blooded animal without sufficient size. The amount of heat your body can generate depends on how many cells you have, and small animals simply don't have enough to replace the heat they lose to the water. On top of that, a small body means a lot of surface area where heat can be lost relative to their overall body mass. That means in the frigid sea, it's better to be bigger.
There's a limit on how massive any creature can get, of course. Your maximum size generally depends on how you eat. Smashing shellfish as a lifestyle, as sea otters do, might not be enough to sustain 100 metric tons, but baleen whales like the blue whale can take advantage of krill, a rich food source.
5. According to the passage, aquatic mammals tend to grow bigger than land ones for ...
A. They have larger lungs to live under the seaB. They eat much more than the ones on the landC. The sea mammals do not breastfeed their babiesD. They must keep themselves warm when they are under the seaE. They evolved since 60 million years ago
6. The word "their land-bound relatives" has the meaning of ...
A. The land mammalsB. The same species as themC. Another species of whalesD. Sea lionsE. Hyrax
7. As used in paragraph 3, the word "frigid" has the closest in meaning with...
A. HardB. ColdC. LowD. DeepE. Vast
8. What does the author's purpose in writing the passage?
A. To give information about sea mammalsB. To educate the readers about why sea mammals are big in sizeC. To show that sea mammals are bigger than their land-relativesD. To discuss and illustrate how sea mammals liveE. To tell how sea mammals grow
TEXT 3
In today's world, most workers are highly specialized, but this specialization can come at a cost -- especially for those on the wrong team. New research by Harvard's Growth Lab uncovers the importance of teams and coworkers when it comes to one's productivity, earning potential, and stays of employment.
The research -- recently published in the journal Science Advances -- analyzed administrative data on the 9 million inhabitants of Sweden. By constructing networks of complementarity and substitutability among specific educational tracks, the research assessed the importance of the skills of coworkers. It found that to earn high wages and returns on education, workers must find coworkers who complement, but not substitute, them. The returns to having complementary coworkers are large: the impact is comparable to having a college degree.
The research offers a tool to assess the right and wrong coworkers in fields of expertise. The right coworkers are those with skills you lack, yet needed to complete a team. The wrong coworkers are those who replicate your skillset and ultimately lower your value to the employer. For example, those with a degree in Architecture are best complemented by workers with engineering, construction, or surveying degrees, and are negatively impacted by those with landscape or interior design degrees.
"We tend to think of skills as being something personal that individuals can market to a company,' said Frank Neffke, Growth Lab Research Director. "However, this vision of skills is too simplistic. One person's skills connect to another person's skills, etc., and the better these connections, the more productive workers will be, and the more they will earn."
Complementarity also drives careers. The research shows that people tend to stay longer in organizations with many complementary workers and tend to leave those with many workers who substitute them. These results hold true for up to 20 years of one's career. The research also supports several well-known facts, such as cities and large firms paying higher wages. Workers are more likely to find better-fitting teams in cities, and large firms often allow workers to specialize.
Neffke adds that the benefits of working with complementary coworkers are not the same for all workers. Those with higher levels of education seem to benefit much more from working in complementary teams than workers with lower levels. Over the past 20 years, workers with college degrees or higher have been increasingly able to find better-matching coworkers.
9. Which of the following can best replace the word inhabitant in "... analyzed administrative data on the 9 million inhabitants of Sweden..." (paragraph 2)?
A. ChaserB. GrazierC. EmployeeD. ImmigrantE. Occupant
10. What can be inferred from the text?
A. The benefits of working with complementary coworkers are not the same for all workersB. Working with complementary coworkers is better than substitute coworkersC. Substitute coworkers detrimental to workersD. The impact of complementary coworkersE. Complementary coworkers are the more productive workers
KUNCI JAWABAN DAN PEMBAHASAN
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