QUALIFYING EXAMINATION FOR APPLICANTS FOR THE JAPANESE

GOVERNMENT (MONBUKAGAKUSHO) SCHOLARSHIP 2015

EXAJY.IINATIONQUESTIONS

UNDERGRADUATE·RESEARCHSTUDENTS

ENGLISH

PLEASE NOTE: THE TEST PERIOD IS 60 MINUTES.

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 (2015)

Nationality
ENGLISH I -.
(Please print your full name,
underlining your family name) Marks
Name

I Choose the word that best completes each sentence.

1 Some of the ( ) of hay fever are a runny nose, watery eyes, and a
headache.
A diagnoses B medicines e patients D symptoms

2 The president believes that all ( ) in her company should help one
another even if they belong to different departments.
A customers B employees e retirees D thermometers

3 Sornepeople will ( ) in their efforts to stop smoking.

A award B depress e succeed D testify

4 He would never do anything to ( ) the future of his government.

A buffer B falter C jeopardize D vandalize

5 She didn't sound.very ( ) about the idea of her parents comingto visit.
A enthusiastic B exclusive C pleasant D provocative

6 The tension between those countries was almost ( ).

A discrepant B flippant e feasible D tangible

7 My daughter studied those subjects ( · ) in order to pass the exams.

A diligently B hardly C permanently D superficially

8 A recent survey revealed that the ( . ) majority of small businesses go

broke within the first two years.

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 A agomzmg B overw helming e painstaking D sustaining

9 The time it takes to climb a rope or a ladder leaves soldiers highly ( ) to

attack.
A courageous B dangerous e responsible D vulnerable

1 O In this country, the film mar ket is ( ) by a few majar corporations that
have monopoly control over the production, distribution, and scr~ening of movies.
A benefited B confiscated C dominated D witnessed ·

II Choose the word or phrase that best completes each sentence.

1 We will now discuss the ( ) merits of each candidate.

A respectable ,B respectful e respect D respective

2 You should complete and submit this forro ( ) Friday; April 3.

A in advance B no later than e previously D beforehand

3 Don't you find ( ) unpleasant walking in the heavy rain?

A it B one C yourself D that

4 ( ) far your constant advice, we couldn't have overcome the problem.

A Should it not be B As C Without D Had it not been

5 John spent 50 dollars and had his watch ( ) ata watchmaker's shop.
A to repair B repair e repaired D repamng

6 The organizer ordered the receptionists to take the names of ( ) comes

to the conference.
A what B which e whoever D whom

7 Over the next decades, the Japanese population is expected to shrink

( ) a pace unseen in any developed country during peacetime.
A at B in C on D by

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 8 Strange ( ) it may seem, there is no generally agreed·upon way to
distinguish between a "language" anda "dialect."
A as B although C so D despite

9 Our planet is home to a bewildering variety of plants and animals. We still don't
know exactly ( ) many insects or sea creatures there are. ·
A what B how C that D whether

10 Believe it or not, at the beginning of the 20th century there ( ) still

places in the world where you could pay your bilis with shells and beads.
A used to be B was C being D were

ill In the following paragraphs, one ofthe underlinedparts is grammatically incorrect.

Choose the iticorrect pert.

1 A Many of us see planes as cold and flu factories, with recirculated air spreading
virus around a long metal tube. B But that's only partly true. e There's no doubt
that traveling by plane increases the risk of developing respiratory infections.
o but it has more to do with passengers being crowdedinto a confined space than
because of the recirculated air. says infectious diseases specialist Dr. Irani
Ratnam.

2 Leonardo da Vinci made many important discoveries.For instance, A he produced

the first accurate sketch of the huinan spine. B His notes also contain the earliest
known description of a certain type ofliver disease. Had he published bis findings,
e he would be considered important than the Belgian scientist Andreas Vesalius.
whose influential textbook "On the Fabric of the Human Body''appeared in 1543.
n But he never did.

3 A I used to think of myself as a fairly cosmopolitan sort of person, but my

bookshelves told a different story; B Apart from a few Indian novels and one or

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 two Australian books, my literature collection consisted British and American
titles. e I never tackled anything in translation. o My reading was confined to
stories by English-speaking authors.

4 A Color is determined by which wavelengths of light bounce off an object. B When

light hit a surface, e certain wavelengths can be absorbed by the material's
electrons. o Whichever wavelengths cannot be absorbed bounce back to be seen as
a particular color by an observer.

5 A Certain fears can be inherited through the generations, a provocative study of

mouse reports. B The authors suggest that a similar phenomenon could influence
anxiety and addiction in human beings. e But sorne researchers are skeptical.
o The findings do not identify any biological mechanism that explains the
phenomenon.

6 A A sari is a lifelong garment. B Tied tight or loase, low slung with your navel
showing, or over a pregnant bump, the same one will fit you from adolescenceinto
old age. e It can be worn as a dress, a sarong. as pantaloons. and even shorts.
o What more, the handwoven sari industry supports tens of thousands of Indian
workers in rural areas.

7 A France once hada great literary culture, and most French people would say it
still do. B But if so, how come their books don't sell in the English-speaking world?
e Is that our fault or theirs? o And how come the French themselves read so many
books that are translated from English and other languages? These are
provocative questions.

8 Cats, accordingto new research from Japan, recognizetheir owner's voice.A They
just can't be bothered to react to it. B "Historically speaking. cats have not been
domesticated to obey humans' orders," the research team said. e This is in
contrast to the history of dogs and humans. o The former has been bred over

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 thousands of years to respond to orders and commands. Cats, it seems, never
needed to learn.

9 Unless reductions in the emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels

begin soon, A the Earth might be much closer to catastrophic warming than is
widely believed. B So argues climatologist James Hansen of the Columbia

University Earth Institute. e Their paper further underscores other recent studies.

Such research shows that neven small delays in shrinking the industrial output
of carbon dioxide could complicate attempts to temper climate change far
generations.

10 In days of old, A the platforms of train stations were knee deep in what looked like
fog. We can see it all the time in black·and·white movies. B I always thought was

steam from the engines. e but now I wonder if it didn't come from cigarettes. You

could smoke everywhere back then. n Depending on your preference, it was either
absolute heaven or absolute hell.

IV Choose the most suiteble word or phrase from the list to Iill each ofthe numbered
blanks in the passage below.

The interest in the nature of human languages appears to ( 1 ) when the

human species evolved in the history of time. There is no culture that has left records
that do not reveal either philosophical or practica! concerns for this unique human
characteristic. Different historical periods revea! different emphases and different
goals ( 2 ) both interests have existed in parallel.
Egyptian surgeons were concerned with clinical questions: an Egyptian papyrus,
dated about 1700 BCE, includes medica! descriptions of language disorders following
brain injury. The philosophers of ancient Greece, on ( 3 ), argued and debated
questions dealing with the origin and the nature oflanguage. Plato, writing ( 4 )
427 and 348 BCE, devoted his Cratylus Dialogue to linguistic issues of his day; and
Aristotle was concerned with language from both rhetorical and philosophical points of
view.

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 The Greeks and the Romans also wrote grammars, and ( 5 ) the sounds of
language and the structures of words and sentences. This interest continued through
the medieval period and the Renaissance in an unbroken thread to the present period.
Linguistic scholarship, ( 6 ), was not confined to Europe: in India the
Sanskrit language was the subject of detailed analysis as ( 7 ) as the twelfth
century BCE. Pánini's Sanskrit grammar dated about 500 BCE is ( 8 )
considered to be one of the greatest scholarly linguistic achievements. In ( 9 ),
Chinese and Arabic scholars have ali contributed to our understanding of human
language.
The major efforts of the linguists in the nineteenth century were devoted to
historical and comparative studies. Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), a Swiss
linguist in this tradition, turned his attention to the structural principles of language
( 10 ) to the ways in which languages change and develop, and in so doíng,
became a major influence on twentieth-century linguistics.

1 A arrse B be arisen e be arising D have arisen

2 A although B despite e therefore D unless
3 A one hand B second though t e the other hand D whole
4 A between B during e from D through
5 A asked B discussed e interrogated D wondered
6 A alone B exclusively e however D supposedly
7 A early B late e soon D well
8 A again B any longer e formerly D still
9 A addition B effect e sum D view
10 A differently B instead e rather than D with intent

V Part I : Read the following passage and select the best answer to each questíon
listed below it.

Long befare guns and arrows, spears were the tool of choice for ancient hunters.
Topped with sharp, pointed rocks, spears at first made it possible to kili animals by
stabbing them close·up. Later, spears were sturdy enough to be thrown át animals from
a distance.
Until recently, the earliest known throwing spears dated back 80,000 years. But a
recent discovery in East África now extends that type of spear hunting to a far earlier

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time, one that precedes humans. It suggests that at least 279,000years ago, an earlier,
humanlike species must have been hunting big game, li.ke hippos and antelope.
Scientists dug up spear tips from that far back in time ata site in Ethiopia called
Gademotta. Back then, during the Stone Age, tools were usually made from found
materials like stone, wood or bone. Any early spear·throwers at that time weren't
people but early ancestors of humans called hominids. Hominids are a family of
primates that includes humans and their extinct ancestors (known only from fossils).
The ancient hominids' spears most likely were long wooden poles topped with
sharp, hand·chipped (sharpened) tips made from glassy volcanicrock, explains Yonatan
Sahle, an archaeologist who has been studying the ancient spear tips made from this
rock, known as obsid.ian.Given the tips' age, his team concludesthat prehuman species
must have spear-hunted too. His team reported its find.ingson November 13, 2013, in
the journal PLOS ONE.
· The new find.ingchallenges previously held ideas about the earliest throwers of
stone·tipped spears, says archaeologist John Shea, who d.id not work on the new study.
Previous stud.ies had suggested ancient peoples started attaching stones to spears
capable of stabbing animals close·up no earlier than 100,000years ago.
The new find shows that more complexthrowing spears were made at Gademotta
long before then. They probably belonged to a species "out of which the human species
evolved in eastern Africa," Shea told Science News. Which hominid left behind the
points? No one knows. Scientists have unearthed no prehuman fossils at the site.

1 Accordingto the article, the earlier type of spears d.ifferfrom the later type in that
they were _
A topped with sharp, pointed rocks. B
used to kill animals at close range. C
used to attack hippos and antelope. D
the tool of choicefor early hunters.

2 Accord.ingto the recent d.iscoveryt,he earliest known use of spears was

A at least 27,900years prior to former discoveries.

B 80,000in our past.
C no earlier than 100,000years ago.
D about 200,000years earlier than previously thought.

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3 According to the recent discovery, spears may have been used by _
A people who lived in an area in Ethiopia.
B humans who lived during the StoneAge.
C creatures different from humans.
D humans at least 279,000 years ago.

4 Until the recent discovery, it had been generally believed that

A spears were long wooden poles with bone at the tip.
B spears were tipped with obsidian.
C stone·tipped spears were not used earlier than 100,000 years ago.
D spear throwing began in East Africa.

5 Just who made the recently discovered, earliest known throwing spear is

A still a great mystery due to the lack of evidence at Gademotta.

B expected to be determined by the prehuman fossils found in Ethiopia.
C undoubtedly a species out of which the human species evolved in eastern
Africa.
D probably a group ofhumans who lived at Gademotta.

V Pert Il: Read the following passage and select the best answar to each question
listed below it.

For most of human history, science has been used alongside magic, religion, and
technologyto try to understand and control the world. Science might be something as
simple as observing the sun rise each morning, or as complicated as identifying a new
chemical element. Magic could be looking at the stars to foretell the future, or maybe
what we would call a superstition, like keeping out of the path of a black cat. Religion
might lead you to sacrifice an animal to appease the gods, or to pray for world peace.
Technologymight involve knowing how to light a fire or build a new computer.
Science,magic, religion, and technologywere used by the earliest human societies
that settled in river valleys across India, China, and the Middle East. The river valleys
were fertile, which allowed crops to be planted each year, enough to feed a large
community. This allowed some people in these communities enough time to focus on

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one thing, to practice and practice, and become expert at it. The first "scientists''
(though they wouldn't have been called that at the time) were probably priests.
In the beginning, technology (which is about "doing") was more important than
science (which is about "knowing''). You need to know what to do, and how to do it,
before you can successfully grow your crops, make your clothes, or cook your food. You
don't need to kñow why sorneberries are poisonous, or some plants edible, to learn how
to avoid one and grow the other. Youdon't have to have a reason why the sun rises each
morning and sets each evening, for these things to happen, each and every day. But
human beings are not only able to learn things about the world around them, they are
also curious, and that curiosity líes at the heart of science.
We know more about the people of Babylon (in present·day Iraq) than we do about
other ancient civilizations for a simple reason: They wrote on clay tablets. Thousands of
these tablets, written almost 6,000 years ago, have survived. They tell us how the
Babylonians viewed thei.r world. They were extremely organized, keeping careful
records of their harvests, stores, and state finances. The priests spent much of thei.r
time looking after the facts and figures of ancient life. They were also the main
"scientists," surveying land, measuring distances, viewing the skY, and developing
techniques for counting. We still use sorne of their discoveriestoday. Like us, they used
tally marks to keep count: this is when you make four vertical marks and cross through
these diagonally with a fifth, which you might have seen in cartoons of a prison cell,
made by the prisoners keeping count of how many years they have been locked up. Far
more importantly, it was the Babylonians who said there should be sixty seconds in a
minute and sixty minutes in an hour, as well as 360 degrees in a circle and seven days
in the week. It is funny to think that there is no real reason why sixty seconds make a
minute, and seven days make a week. Other numbers would have worked just as well.
But, the Babylonian system got picked up elsewhere and it has stuck.

1 What do science, magic, religion, and technology have in common?

A They are all used to identify what new chemical substances are.
B They are all used to understand why the sun sets in the west.
C They are all used to find out or explain what the world is like.
D They are all used to discuss how humans think about the world.

2 What made it possible for the earliest human societies to settle in the areas ofindia,
China, and the Middle East?
A The land was rich enough to sustain a large society.

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 B Sciencewas regarded as more important than technology.
C Most scientists and priests attempted to feed their communities.
D People in ancient civilizations were curious about these areas.

3 Why do people today know more about Babylon than other ancient civilizations?
A The discoveriesof Babylon are widely used even today.
B Babylon developedthe largest ancient civilization.
C People in Babylon attempted to dominate the world.
D Various documents from Babylon are available today.

4 Based on the information provided in the article, which diagram best represents
the tally marks described?
A B C D
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5 Which ofthe followingstatements is TRUE?
A There is no special reason that sixty seconds equals one minute.
B Religion might lead people to look at the stars to foretell the future.
C Technologywill answer the question as to why sorneplants are edible.
D Human beings are usually not curious about the world around them.

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