Questions 21-25 

   The remarkable growth of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) over the past 30 years has transformed this nascent interdisciplinary field into an intellectually-rich, high-impact, worldwide phenomenon. The initiators of HCI have grown from a small rebellious group of researchers who struggled to gain recognition as they broke disciplinary boundaries to a broad 21 with potent impact on the daily lives of every human. The 22 of early HCI researchers and practitioners were to make better menus, design graphical user interfaces based on direct manipulation, improve input devices, design effective control panels, and present information in comprehensible formats. HCI software developers contributed innovative tools that enabled programmers and non-programmers to create interfaces for widely varying applications and diverse users. In the early days, HCI researchers and professionals fought to gain recognition, and often still have to 23 HCI’s value with academic colleagues or corporate managers. However, the larger world now embraces their contributions and 24 what they can deliver. 25 fields can claim such rapid expansion and broad impact as evidenced in the domain of HCI.

   Programming used to be a process of translating concepts into computer terms. 26 , computer programmers first need to discuss and propose high-level ideas and concepts expressed in natural language; they then work with these ideas in math notation and flowcharts, finally translating them into pseudocode and a computer program that could 27 the proposed ideas. Translation is a necessary process because each ‘language’ noted above offers idiosyncratic capacities not seen in the other languages. For instance, natural language is expressive and readable; math notation is concise and precise; and code is abstract but is logical. Due to the unique feature of each language, the price of translation is that no one is an omnipotent 28 in all the languages involved in the process of programming; in most cases, we are only limited to a subset of ideas we can express effectively in a given language. This issue is further 29 by the fact that some ideas that are easy to express in computer terms are difficult to express in math notation, and the symbolic math notation may be awkward to write in computer codes. The aforementioned translation issues cannot be resolved in the first-generation programming languages such as FORTRAN and C. 30 the evolution of programming languages, modern programming languages such as Python are now expressive, readable, concise, precise, and executable. This entails that programmers can now eliminate ‘middleman’ languages and use one language to explore, to learn, to teach, and to think, thereby reducing the burden traditionally imposed on programmers.

IV. Discourse Structure: Choose the best answer from the box below for each blank in the passage. Questions 31-35 

   Because of globalization, it is now easier than ever to share information and trade goods all around the world. 31 One of the main benefits of a shrinking world is that global cooperation is now much easier. International collaboration can help countries address issues together. It can also promote peace and understanding between different nations.

    32 Take the environment for example. There are, unfortunately, many environmental problems that affect the entire planet today. 33 At the world-wide level, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) coordinates international efforts that affect the land, sea, and air for the 192 member states of the United Nations. The UNEP thus promotes sustainability for the entire planet’s environment. At a more regional level, the United States and Canada are working together to fight the air pollution that leads to acid rain. These two countries are members of an international joint commission that has agreed to work on air quality. 34 Indeed, they have been very successful in reducing the harmful elements that cause acid rain. For instance, according to Environment Canada, sulphur dioxide emissions that cause acid rain have been reduced by 57% in Canada and 67% in the United States since 1990. By working together, Canada and the US are protecting the environment on both sides of the border. Major world problems such as air pollution and acid rain are best solved through global cooperation. Peaceful coexistence is also promoted through countries working together. 35 But if countries can collaborate on the solutions, the problems are sure to be overcome.

(A) However, countries can work together to solve them.

(B) Rapid advances in information and communications technology have resulted in what seems to be a much smaller world. 

(C) The planet is sure to face more challenges in the future. 

(D) To attain this goal, they cooperate in a number of ways, including exchanging information and conducting research. 

(E) Global cooperation is vital because many of the world’s troubles cannot be easily resolved without the help from other countries.

   Some researchers contend that solving a math problem requires correct understanding of concepts, which is also believed to foster the ability to play a musical instrument. But, this view is not universally upheld by all scholars. 36 Furthermore, much remains unknown about whether the development of the two abilities are mutually beneficial to each other; namely, music training promotes math solving ability, and mathematic ability enhances musical performance. 37 The lack of consensus can be attributed to two issues. First, although a few cross-sectional studies have shown that students who are musically trained tend to outperform those who have not studied music in mathematics grades, this finding is not universally established in all studies. Second, available studies only prove the correlation between the two abilities. It is important to note that correlation does not necessarily entail a causal relationship. 38 In the light of these two issues, some researchers hold a more conservative attitude toward the link between the two abilities and posit that the proposed ‘link’ between the two abilities can be attributed to other confounding variables such as socio-economic background and cognitive factors. For instance, people who have good financial resources and socio-economic status are more likely to afford music lessons and receive training in math, thereby having outstanding performance in the two abilities. 39 For instance, high-level cognitive skills (such as one’s ability to adjust to changing task demands) are key to the success in math and music. 40 To shed light on the relationship between music and mathematic abilities, we need to recruit people with similar socio-economic and cognitive profiles, and diachronically observe their mathematic performance before and after receiving musical training. Before such longitudinal evidence is available, we just need to enjoy playing music or studying math if it positively enriches our lives. 

(A) To validate the causal relationship between the two abilities, longitudinal experimental studies are warranted. 

(B) In addition to the above explanatory account, it is also conceivable that cognitive factors may contribute to an individual’s success in music and mathematics. 

(C) In fact, no existing study has established the causal relationship between the two abilities. 

(D) Whether the two abilities share a similar prerequisite remains a debated issue.

(E) Or, alternatively, the two abilities simply develop in parallel.

Questions 41-42 

    Years ago, Prof. J. D. Bernal wrote a canonical essay on science and industry, which was later included in a series of essays concerning the frustration of science. This edited volume of essays bore witness to the sense of social responsibility of individual scientific men at least, and to their concerns with tendencies or forces which are preventing science from bringing its full benefits to mankind. Somewhat earlier, in “Scientific Research and Social Needs,” Prof. Julian Huxley gave a popular picture of the extent to which scientific advance is influencing every aspect of everyday life and a brief forecast of some of the further possibilities if we can lessen or close the wide gap between scientific knowledge and its application to the needs of humanity. In this vein, Lord Stamp in “The Science of Social Adjustment” called for research on urgent problems arising from the impact of science on society. In this effort, scientific workers have become aware that, for the first time since the Renaissance, science itself is in danger, and that political forces are threatening not merely the direction but even the existence of science.

  In Principles of Psychology, one of the founding works of experimental psychology, William James talked a lot about “instincts.” This term was used to roughly refer to specialized neural circuits that are common to every member of a species and are the product of that species’ evolutionary history. Taken together, such circuits constitute (in our own species) what one can think of as “human nature.”

   It was and is common to think that other animals are ruled by “instinct,” whereas humans lost their instincts and are ruled by “reason,” and that this is why we are so much more flexibly intelligent than other animals. James, however, argued that human behavior is more flexibly intelligent than that of other animals because we have more instincts, not fewer. We tend to be blind to the existence of these instincts, however, precisely because they process information so effortlessly and automatically. They structure our thought so powerfully, he contended, that it can be difficult to imagine how things could be otherwise. As a result, we take “normal” behavior for granted. We do not realize that “normal” behavior needs to be explained at all. This “instinct blindness” makes the study of psychology difficult. To get past this problem, James suggested that we try to “make the natural seem strange” and that we should not take “the natural” for granted.

   In our view, William James was right about evolutionary psychology. Although the idea of “mak[ing] the natural seem strange” appears to be odd, it is a pivotal part of the research on natural competences. Many psychologists avoid this line of thinking, arguing that nothing about “the natural” needs to be explained. As a result, social psychologists are disappointed unless they find a phenomenon “that would surprise their grandmothers,” and cognitive psychologists spend more time studying how we solve problems we are bad at, like learning math or playing chess, than ones we are good at. But our natural competences -- our abilities to see, to speak, to find someone beautiful, to reciprocate a favor, to fear disease, to fall in love, to initiate an attack, to experience moral outrage, to navigate a landscape, and myriad others -- are possible only because there is a vast and heterogeneous array of complex computational machinery supporting and regulating these activities. This machinery works so well that we do not even realize that it exists. We all suffer from instinct blindness. As a result, psychologists have neglected to study some of the most interesting machinery in the human mind

   Many preterm babies, especially those in the intensive care unit, are often subject to various intrusive life-saving but painful procedures, such as heel pricking or insertion of a thin tube to deliver fluids or medicine. What is stunning is that analgesic is only used about one third of the time. Decades ago, doctors used to believe that newborn babies do not feel pain and that even if they do feel pain, giving them painkillers or analgesics would do them more harm than good. However, recently, medical professionals and clinicians have started to revisit this view using more advanced technology such as fMRI and electroencephalography (EEG). EEG detects very different brain-wave patterns when babies receive painful and painless procedures. Although this incorrect view has been cleared up, we still have very limited understanding of infant pain. Treating infant pain is a daunting task both for the experienced and novice medical professionals.

   What really concerns the parents and medical professionals is the lack of appropriate guidelines when analgesic is used for babies. The lack of guidelines can be attributed to the fact that the efficacy of analgesic is often affected by its quantity given to babies. Determination of the dose of analgesia for babies is tricky because not all analgesics for adults are suitable for babies, and those that can indeed be given to babies often lead to different effects in babies. This thus makes dosing a thorny issue. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that babies are not capable of articulating how they feel. To address this problem, medical professionals have started to appeal to EEG to objectively measure pain-related brain activities in babies and to determine whether a given pain killer is effective in alleviating pain during necessary medical procedures. Dr. Bonnie Stevens, a senior scientist from the University of Toronto, adds several caveats: the current EEG research only involves small samples of participants, and the period of observation of EEG response is short and may not correlate well with behavior. Dr. Stevens further notes: The cost and expertise required for the application of EEG measures of pain might be prohibitive. Due to the above issues, medical professionals need to keep refining the EEG approach to pain measurement and to allow it to be used in various clinical settings. Notwithstanding, the preliminary EEG findings are promising. Before the use of the EEG technology, it is not clear whether morphine -- an analgesic frequently given to adults in medical treatment -- provides equally effective pain relief in babies. Now, medical professionals can tell whether babies who are given morphine experience less pain, at least in the lab setting. Existing EEG measurements are mainly used in the lab and for group research purposes, rather than for individual clinical needs. With more extensive application of the EEG technology in the clinical setting, medical professionals will be better able to identify more effective pain relief drugs, and lower numbers of painful procedures performed on newborn babies.