Example of reading passage for Chinese English university entry exam

[Scoobyqueen]

This is an example of a reading passage from a Chinese gao kao exam. I was struck by how much the style resembles the HSK exam:

Most people want to know how things are made. They honestly admit, however, that they hardly know a thing when it comes to understanding how a piece of music is made. Where a composer (作家) begins, how he manages to keep going – in fact, how and where he learns his trade – all are covered in complete darkness . The composer, in short, is a man of mystery (神秘).

One of the first things the common man wants to know about is the part inspiration (灵感)plays in a composer’s work. He finds it difficult to believe that composers are not much interested in that question. Writing music is as natural for the composer as eating or sleeping for all. Music is something that the composer happens to have been born for.

The composer, therefore, does not say to himself: “Do I feel inspired?” He says to himself: “Do I feel like working today?” And if he feels like working, he does. It is more or less like saying to himself: “Do I feel sleepy?” If you feel sleepy, you go to sleep. If you don’t feel sleepy, you stay up. If the composer doesn’t feel like working he doesn’t work. It’s as simple as that.

1 What would be the best title for the text?

A Composer: a man of mystery

B Practice makes good music

C Relation between sleeping and music

D Music: Product of nature

2 the words “covered in complete darkness” underlined in paragraph 1 most probably mean

A difficult to be made

B without any light

C black in color

D not known

3 Most people seem to think that a composer

A finds it difficult to write music

B considers it important to have a good rest

C Should like to talk about inspiration

D Never asks himself very simple questions

4 The author will most probably agree that composers

A are born with a gift for music

B are people full of mystery

C work late at night for their music

D know a lot about eating and sleeping

[Meng Lelan]

Do they actually put those Chinese characters in there for the less commonly taught English words? I wonder how the Chinese themselves feel about having to take the English exam for the gaokao.

[chen88]

It rather resembles anything taken from the ACT, the SAT, or any standardized test with a reading comprehension portion. No surprises here - except that they include the Chinese definitions for a few words! What is the point of reading comprehension if everything is defined?

[chenpv]

Yes, they do put definitions for some less common words not covered in the textbook so that the proportion of less common words does not exceed 5% of all vocabulary used in a passage. Take the passage up there for example, the word 'trade' and the phrase 'feel like' are not given any definitions.

[Scoobyqueen]

No surprises here -

except (probably) the Chinese exams tend to put a lot more material into a shorter space of time thus allowing the student little time to answer all questions.

What is the point of reading comprehension if everything is defined?

The point is confound the student by not definiting the idiomatic ones that are usually more difficult for a foreigner: "keep going", "happens to", "how things are made"