VB036 09
Adapted from Jones, Leo. New Cambridge Advance English. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004.
Shelley, Gary B. and Vermaat, Misty E. Discovering Computers 2011: Living in a Digital World. Boston: Cengage, 2011.
1) Look at the following text from an article on Facebook use around the world. Complete the text with
necessary punctuation marks.
At Davos this year Sandberg told the well heeled crowd that in the developing world people will walk into phone
stores and say I want Facebook. People actually confuse Facebook and the internet in some places. Or as Iris Orriss
Facebooks head of localization and internationalization has put it Awareness of the Internet in developing countries
is very limited. In fact for many users Facebook is the internet as its often the only accessible application.
2) Fill in the gaps with the missing verbs. You will not need two verbs.
collect combine design determine ensure include perform
refer (2x) advance rely require inquire
Bioinformatics: Technology Collides with Biology
Informatics, also ________ to as information science, refers to the gathering, processing, storing, retrieving, and
organizing of information. Informatics typically ________ information technology or computer science with another
area of study. As we use computers to ________ massive amounts of data, we also must ________ on them to
process the data into meaningful information. Computers continually become more powerful, requiring only seconds
to process data that otherwise might require several human years to process. In fact, the informatics field is
exploding in popularity.
As mentioned previously, several specializations of informatics exist, each combining computer science with another
field of study. These specializations ________ the combination of information technology with other fields such as
molecular biology (bioinformatics), biomedical sciences (biomedical informatics), chemistry (chemoinformatics),
ecology (ecoinformatics), geosciences (geoinformatics), health (health informatics), neuroscience (neuroinformatics),
sociology (social informatics), and veterinary medicine (veterinary informatics).
Many colleges and universities now are offering an increasing number of courses in bioinformatics. Bioinformatics
________ to computer applications in biological sciences where biologists use computers to analyse, store, or
retrieve biological information. Bioinformatics research ________ extensive collaboration between biologists and
computer scientists. Essentially, biologists help the computer scientists understand the research study they would
like to ________, and the computer scientists ________ programs to collect the data, process the data, and
________ the results. Throughout this entire process, the biologists work closely with the computer scientists to
________ the accuracy of the data, its processing, and the output. Computer technology has assisted in analysing
the DNA sequence, advancing the study of molecular genetics.
VB036 09
Adapted from Jones, Leo. New Cambridge Advance English. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004.
Shelley, Gary B. and Vermaat, Misty E. Discovering Computers 2011: Living in a Digital World. Boston: Cengage, 2011.
3) Reported/indirect speech. Discuss the differences in meaning between these sentences:
1
He told us that he had visited Australia in the summer.
He told us that he visited Australia in the summer.
He told us that he would be visiting Australia in the
summer.
2
She asked me if I had been to New Zealand.
She asked me when I had been to New Zealand.
She asked me whether I had been to New Zealand.
3
David says he wants to visit his relations in Canada.
David said he wanted to visit his relations in Canada.
David said he wants to visit his relations in Canada.
David said, “He wanted to visit his relations in
Canada.”
4
Ruth phoned to say that she would be flying to India
the next day.
Ruth phoned to say that she would be flying to India
tomorrow.
Ruth phoned to say that she was flying to India the
next day.
5
I didn’t find out when the show starts.
I didn’t find out when the show started.
I didn’t find out when the show will start.
I didn’t find out when the show would start.
4) Instead of using “He said that. . .” or “She asked if . . .” in reported speech, an appropriate verb can reflect
the TONE that was used in direct speech and the FUNCTION of the sentence. Decide how many of the
verbs below can be used to fill each of the gaps in these sentences:
admit allow announce ask assure beg call out claim convince deny encourage explain
inform insist instruct invite mention mumble notify order permit persuade repeat
reply scream shout suggest tell urge warn whisper
1) She ______________ that she came from Australia.
2) They ______________ us/me that they were feeling tired.
3) He ______________ me to lend him some money.