Universidad Nacional de La Pampa - Facultad de Ciencias Humanas-SEREX ! Examen de Acreditación de Niveles de Lengua Inglesa 2014 Candidate’s Name .………...……………………………… DNI …………………………………………………………. Nivel: AVANZADO Paper: READING (1 h 15 min) ! A. Read the following text, adapted from http://voanews.com New Fact Checking Website Arrives JOHANNESBURG— The ‘facts’ in South Africa now have a kind of watchdog. Africa Check, a fledgling fact checking website, is attempting to pin down unfounded claims made by the country's leaders, media outlets along with widely held beliefs. There is a common claim in Johannesburg that it has the largest man-made forest in the world. It's easy to believe; the city has lush, green canopy that covers many neighborhoods. (1) But it's not true, according to Africa Check, which found that the largest man-made forest is actually in China, next to the Gobi desert. Debunking bogus claims, politically charged fictions and unfounded statements, Africa Check is a website that challenges media, politicians and the occasional social media celebrity when they massage the truth, or ignore it completely, said Julian Rademeyer, southern Africa editor for the site. "I think the fundamental element of our work is that we are trying to get people to question what they're told, what they read, what politicians say to them, and to look at what the information that is there and ask essentially what the fundamental question is 'Where is the evidence?' If someone makes a claim, where is the evidence to support that claim, and to actually interrogate those claims and not to accept things purely for what they are," Rademeyer said. (2) Africa Check was launched in June 2012 by the Agence France Press foundation in partnership with the University of Witswaterand's journalism department. Rademeyer and a researcher are the site's two full-time employees. There is also a team of freelance reporters who work on fact checking assignments. Following in the footsteps of popular American websites like PolitiFact and Factcheck.org, Africa Check is the first media outlet in South Africa to solely work in fact checking. South Africa has a strong legacy of investigative journalism and photography that dates back to the apartheid era. But like many countries, Rademeyer says its news industry has been hampered by shrinking budgets and newsrooms. "Because of the fact that newspapers don't have the resources they would've had in the past, or don't have specialist beat reporters," he said. "It allows public figures and it allows politicians to make claims that don't go checked. I think that's where we play a role. We come in and look at those claims and we have the ability and the time to go through those claims.” (3) Paula Fray, former editor for the Star Newspaper and a media consultant, says Africa Check may put a much-needed pressure on newsrooms. "At the moment Africa Check is not known as much as I'm hoping as it going to be known," she said. "I'm hoping that eventually journalists will be writing their stories and thinking if my news Universidad Nacional de La Pampa - Facultad de Ciencias Humanas-SEREX ! Examen de Acreditación de Niveles de Lengua Inglesa 2014 Candidate’s Name .………...……………………………… DNI …………………………………………………………. editor doesn't pick up that something hasn't been verified, Africa Check might pick up that it hasn't been verified. So I'm not going to put anything in my stories unless I can prove it." (4) She also hopes it will create a greater culture of accountability. "I think the more organizations out there holding journalism to account the better actually for the industry," Fray said. The site also takes on myths that get repeated so often that they go unchecked. When a South African musician with 175,000 Facebook followers made the claim that white South Africans are being killed at an alarming rate, Africa Check looked into the facts. It found that most of the musician's claims were exaggerated or untrue. But the report also shed light on one of the challenges of South African statistics from the apartheid era. "The crime data from apartheid South Africa for white neighborhoods is generally fairly accurate." Rademeyer said. "But the problem is that a lot of the crime reporting for instance from apartheid era homelands, the crime reporting from townships in the 1970s and 80s was appalling. Statistics weren't kept, and they're a mess. And historically those are challenges that you do have to deal with," he said. (5) The site has also debunked claims made about traditional healers, South Africa's rate of asylum seekers and a BBC report about white squatter camps in South Africa. Long term, Rademeyer envisions the site expanding across the continent. "I really do think as a project it could play a very important role," he said. "We've done some very basic fact checking or fact sheet-related reporting on elements of the elections in Zimbabwe recently. We'd obviously like to do more of that in the next elections in Zimbabwe, for instance, and elections in neighboring countries. And try to expand our reach." With presidential elections looming next year in South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia, the site will be busy. ! 1. The following sentences have been removed from the text. Put them back in the right places. There are two extra sentences that you do not need to use. A. -(not used)- Around half of Africa Check’s investigations are triggered by readers wanting to know anything from the veracity of claims made by pop stars to supposed disease-busting local herbs. B. -(3)- Paula Fray, former editor for the Star Newspaper and a media consultant, says Africa Check may put a much-needed pressure on newsrooms. C. -(1)- But it's not true, according to Africa Check, which found that the largest man-made forest is actually in China, next to the Gobi desert. D. -(2)- Africa Check was launched in June 2012 by the Agence France Press foundation in partnership with the University of Witswaterand's journalism department. E. -(5)- The site has also debunked claims made about traditional healers, South Africa's rate of asylum seekers and a BBC report about white squatter camps in South Africa. F. -(4)- She also hopes it will create a greater culture of accountability. G. -(not used)- In an age when information cascades down Twitter feeds by the millisecond, it is increasingly difficult to sieve for facts, especially when it comes to much of Africa. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa - Facultad de Ciencias Humanas-SEREX ! Examen de Acreditación de Niveles de Lengua Inglesa 2014 Candidate’s Name .………...……………………………… DNI …………………………………………………………. 2. There are 8 words highlighted in the text. Use them to complete the following sentences, which clarify their meanings in the text. The words are: watchdog, fledgling, bogus, massage, freelance, hampered, appalling, looming. a. This is a __ fledgling__ company, quite new and not yet much developed. b. The police investigation was __ hampered__ by lack of help from the community. c. __Bogus__ documents are those which pretend to be real, but they are false. d. With the deadline to hand in his work _looming_ just around the corner, he chose to stay awake all night and finish the school project. e. Well, of course! If you __massage_ your data in that way, you will find your evidence. But it is only information that has been manipulated. f. Have you heard of Tom? He’s working as a __freelance___ writer for some magazines. He says he doesn’t like to be employed by only one company. g. Be careful with what you do, as we are acting as a ___watchdog__. We will check that you behave legally and provide good services. h. John finally left the company. The __appalling__ working conditions he suffered, made him take his final decision to quit. ! ! B. Read the following text about a painter Mark Rothko Mark Rothko, one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, was born in Daugavpils, Latvia in 1903. His father emigrated to the United States, afraid that his sons would be drafted into the Czarist army. Mark stayed in Russia with his mother and older sister; they joined the family later, arriving in the winter of 1913, after a 12-day voyage. Mark moved to New York in the autumn of 1923 and found employment in the garment trade and took up residence on the Upper West Side. It was while he was visiting someone at the Art Students League that he saw students sketching a nude model. According to him, this was the start of his life as an artist. He was twenty years old and had taken some art lessons at school, so his initial experience was far from an immediate calling. In 1936, Mark Rothko began writing a book, which he never completed, about the similarities in the children's art and the work of modern painters. The work of modernists, which was influenced by primitive art, could, according to him, be compared to that of children in that "child art transforms itself into primitivism, which is only the child producing a mimicry of himself." In this same work, he said that "the fact that one usually begins with drawing is already academic. We start with colour." It was not long before his multiforms developed into the style he is remembered for; in 1949 Rothko exhibited these new works at the Betty Parsons Gallery. For critic Harold Rosenberg, the paintings were a revelation. Rothko had, after painting his first multiform, secluded himself to his home in East Hampton on Long Island, only inviting a very few people, including Rosenberg, to view the new paintings.