Download 1st Year Second Semester Examination - 2013 (EN -1202

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SRI LANKA INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION
(Established in the Ministry of Higher Education, vide in Act No. 29 of 1995)
Higher National Diploma In Engineering
(Civil/Electrical/Mechanical)
1st Year Second Semester Examination - 2013
(EN -1202) English for Professionals
Instructions for Candidates:
Answer all questions
No of pages
: 06
No of questions
: 07
Time : Three (03) hours
(01)
Read the text and answer the following questions based on it.
Comets are small, fragile, irregularly shaped bodies composed of a mixture of nonvolatile grains and frozen gases. They usually follow highly elongated paths around the
Sun. Most become visible, even in telescopes, only when they get near enough to the Sun
for the Sun's radiation to start subliming the volatile gases, which in turn blow away
small bits of the solid material. These materials expand into an enormous escaping
atmosphere called the coma, which becomes far bigger than a planet, and they are forced
back into long tails of dust and gas by radiation and charged particles flowing from the
Sun.
Comets are very small in size relative to planets. Their average diameters usually range
from 750meters (2,460 feet) or less to about 20 kilometers (12 miles). Recently, evidence
has been found for much larger distant comets, perhaps having diameters of 300
kilometers (186 miles) or more, but these sizes are still small compared to planets.
Planets are usually more or less spherical in shape, usually bulging slightly at the equator.
Comets are irregular in shape, with their longest dimension often twice the shortest. The
best evidence suggests that comets are very fragile. Their tensile strength appears to be
only about 1,000 dynes/cm^2 (about 2 lb./ft.^2). You simply pull it in two with your bare
hands, something like a poorly compacted snowball.
Where the orbits of planets around the Sun are nearly circular, however, the orbits of
comets are quite elongated. Nearly 100 known comets have periods (the time it takes
them to make one complete trip around the Sun) five to seven Earth years in length. Their
farthest point from the Sun ( aphelion) is near Jupiter's orbit, with the closest point
(perihelion) being much nearer to Earth. A few comets like Halley have their aphelions
beyond Neptune (which is six times as far from the Sun as Jupiter). Other comets come
from much farther out yet, and it may take them thousands or even hundreds of thousands
of years to make one complete orbit around the Sun.
The nucleus of a comet, which is its solid, persisting part, has been called an icy
conglomerate. Certainly a comet nucleus contains silicates akin to some ordinary Earth
rocks in composition, probably mostly in very small grains and pieces. Perhaps the grains
are glued together into larger pieces by the frozen gases. A nucleus appears to include
complex carbon compounds and perhaps some free carbon, which make it very black in
color. Most notably, at least when young, it contains many frozen gases, the most
common being ordinary water. In the low pressure conditions of space, water sublimes,
that is, it goes directly from solid to gas -- just like dry ice does on Earth.
A comet nucleus is small, so its gravitational pull is very weak. As a result, the escaping
gases and the small solid particles (dust) that they drag with them never fall back to the
nucleus surface. Radiation pressure, the pressure of sunlight, forces the dust particles
back into a dust tail in the direction opposite to the Sun. A comet's tail can be tens of
millions of kilometers in length when seen in the reflected sunlight. The gas molecules
are torn apart by solar ultraviolet light, often losing electrons and becoming electrically
charged fragments or ions. The ions interact with the wind of charged particles flowing
out from the Sun and are forced back into an ion tail, which again can extend for millions
of kilometers in the direction opposite to the Sun. These ions can be seen as they
fluoresce in sunlight.
Because comet nuclei are so small, they are quite difficult to study from Earth. They
always appear at most as a point of light in even the largest telescope, if not lost
completely in the glare of the coma. A great deal was learned when the European Space
Agency, the Soviet Union, and the Japanese sent spacecraft to fly by Comet Halley in
1986. For the first time, actual images of an active nucleus were obtained and the
composition of the dust and gases flowing from it was directly measured. Early in the
next century, the Europeans plan to send a spacecraft called Rosetta to rendezvous with a
comet and watch it closely for a long period of time. Even this sophisticated mission is
not likely to tell scientists a great deal about the interior structure of comets, however.
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HNDE (C/M/E) 1st – 2013 – English for Professionals
(A)
State if the following statements are True or False.
(05 marks)
(B)
(i)
Comets travel around the sun similar to other planets.
(ii)
Comets are objects much larger than planets.
(iii)
Its tail is formed when a comet reaches close enough to the Sun to
catch its radiation.
(iv)
The nucleus of a comet consists of very high temperature.
(v)
The nucleus obtains its black color from its chemical substances.
Write Answers to the following questions.
(10 Marks)
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
(C)
What is the significance of comet Halley which sighted in 1986?
What information is available in the text to suggest that nuclei are very
small in size.
Identify four differences between a comet and a planet.
Briefly explain how a comet develops to the stage which is visible to
the naked eye?
“ Viewing a comet first – hand is a rare opportunity.” Support this
statement with facts from the text.
Find words to match the following phrases from those underlined in the text.
(05 marks)
(i)
Bright shine :
(ii)
Reflect light :
(iii)
Gathered rounded mass:
(iv)
Extend in length:
(v)
Curved path of a planet around the sun :
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HNDE (C/M/E) 1st – 2013 – English for Professionals
(02)
Complete the idioms in the following sentences using correct prepositions given below.
From,
up,
by,
into,
within,
of,
around,
on
(08 Marks)
(i)
Sometimes it is glamorous being a star, but the other side _______ the coin is
that you no longer have any privacy.
(ii)
After going through the entries in my great grand father’s diary everything fell
_______ place.
(iii)
When the business failed John vanished leaving his partner to pick _____ the
pieces.
(iv)
__________ the one hand I think Janna might have ths best personality for the
job , but Mina has more experience.
(v )
My brother never does anything ________ halves. He designed his house and
most of its furniture.
(vi)
As I had lost noted for my essays , I had to start ________ scratch.
(vii)
There has never been rain like this ________ living memory.
(viii)
Rescue teams are working _________ the clock in search of survivors of the
earthquake.
(03)
Complete the following text using the words given below.
(10 Marks)
This should come as welcome (i)_________ to anyone attempting an all-night study
(ii)________ to go to bed instead. New research by the university of Liege in Belgium
suggests a good night’s sleep after (iii)__________ study enhances recall. Researchers
asked (iv)__________ to learn the lay out of a (v)__________ town adopted from a
computer game. Brain scans of these volunteers during sleep afterwards showed higher
(vi)_________ in the hippocampus- one of the brain’s learning centres – than in a
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HNDE (C/M/E) 1st – 2013 – English for Professionals
control group who
(vii)___________
had not
studied. The researchers
then
tested the learners’
after the sleep session and found that there was a direct link
(viii)________ performance and the levels of brain activity (ix)_________ sleep. “ Our
results provide critical evidence that hippocampus activity during sleep (x)__________
with improvement in memory performance,” said researcher Philippe Peigneux.
Knowledge,
advice,
activity,
correlates ,
virtual,
between , session ,
volunteers
(04)
solid,
during,
Change the following sentences into passive voice.
(10 Marks)
(05)
(i)
Students are organizing many events for the festival.
(ii)
Tourists visited the ruins of the ancient city before leaving the country.
(iii)
What present will parents give for your next birthday?
(iv)
The owners should have left the house immediately after fire warning.
(v)
Do you really believe the thieves were misleading the police?
Use five conjunctions (do not repeat) of your choice to write a brief description of a
popular personality that you admire. Use 5 – 7 sentences. You may use following
conjunctions among others: As , But, Although, Because, After, Before, Either…or,
etc.
(10 Marks)
(06)
(A)
Complete the following weather forecast providing suitable words/phrases.
(07 Marks)
Within the (i)____________ ending at
8.00 a.m this morning
the
(ii)_________________ was of 53 mm from
Angampitiya
with
(iii)_________________ of 34 degrees Celsius from Mannar. Due to turbulent
weather conditions at the bay of Bengal within the next 24 hours scattered
(iv) ______________ can be expected in Western, Uva and Sabaragamuwa
provinces
with
(v)_________________
accompanied
by
(vi)_____________over 50 km/h occurring in coastal areas during afternoon.
(vii)_____________ will be cloudy in most other parts (viii)_____________
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HNDE (C/M/E) 1st – 2013 – English for Professionals
(B)
Imagine you are the Director of the ATI and draft the letter addressed to the
superintendent of the bus depot of the area requesting to provide transport
facility for an industrial visit of the Engineering diploma students. Include
information about the destination, number of students, arrangement of
payment,etc.
(15 Marks)
(07)
Write an essay on one of the following topics in not less than 250 words.
i)
Application of modern technology in Sri Lankan higher education sector.
ii)
The significance of Sri Lanka hosting the Commonwealth Heads of the
Governments Meeting.
iii)
Social responsibility of Sri Lankan media.
(20 Marks)
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HNDE (C/M/E) 1st – 2013 – English for Professionals