Cambridge 19 | Test 3 | Passage 3

Is the era of artificial speech translation upon us?

Noise, Alex Waibel tells me, is one of the major challenges thatartificial speech translation has to meet. A device may be able torecognizespeech in a laboratory, or a meeting room, but will struggle to cope with the kind of background noise I can hear in my office surrounding Professor Waibel as he speaks to me from Kyoto station in Japan. I’m struggling to follow him inEnglish, on ascratchy line that reminds me we are nearly 10,000 kilometers apart—and that distance is still anobstacle to communication even if you’re speaking the same language, as we are. We haven’t reached the future yet. If we had, Waibel would have been able to speak more comfortably in his native German and I would have been able to hear his words in English.

recognize (verb) [transitive]

/ˈrek.əɡ.naɪz/

if a machine recognizes something, it is able to read it electronically and get information

e.g., The device recognises the bar code and records the price.

scratchy (adjective)

/ˈskrætʃ.i/

A scratchy record, etc. has scratches on it so it makes unpleasant noises when it is played

e.g., We spent the evening listening to her scratchy old jazz records.

obstacle (noun) [countable]

/ˈɑːb.stə.kəl/

a situation, an event, etc. thatmakes it difficult for you to do or achieve something

e.g., A lack of qualifications can be a major obstacle to finding a job.

Cambridge 19 | Test 2 | Passage 3

An inquiry into the existence of the gifted child

Let us start by looking at a modern “genius,” Maryam Mirzakhani, who died at the early age of 40. She was the only woman to win the Fields Medal—the mathematical equivalent of a Nobel Prize. It would be easy to assume that someone as special as Mirzakhani must have been one of those “gifted” children, those who have an extraordinary ability in a specific sphere of activity or knowledge. But look closer and a different story emerges. Mirzakhani was born in Tehran, Iran. She went to a highlyselective girls’ school but maths wasn’t her interest—reading was. She loved novels and would readanything she could lay her hands on. As for maths, she did rather poorly at it for the first couple of years in her middle school, but became interested when her elder brother told her about what he’d learned. He shared a famous maths problem from a magazine that fascinated her—and she washooked.

selective (adjective)

/sɪˈlek.tɪv/

intentionally choosing some things and not others

e.g., The club is selective in choosing members.

e.g., The college has a highly selective admissionsprocess.

get/lay/put your hands on something (idiom)

to find something

e.g., I can never lay my hands on a stapler in this office.

hooked (adjective)

/hʊkt/

‌if you are hooked on something, you enjoy it very much and you want to do it as often as possible

e.g., Her friends talked her into playing golf, and now she's hooked.

Cambridge 19 | Test 2 | Passage 2

Athletes and Stress

It isn’t easy being a professional athlete. Not only are the physical demands greater than most people could handle, athletes also face intense psychological pressure during competition. This is something that British tennis player Emma Raducanu wrote about on social media following herwithdrawalfrom the 2021 Wimbledon tournament. Though the young player had been doing well in the tournament, she began having difficultyregulating her breathing and heart rate during a match, which she later attributed to the “accumulation of the excitement and thebuzz.”

withdrawal (noun) [ C/U ]

/wɪðˈdrɑː.əl/

an act of taking something back, removing something, or moving something back

Her sudden withdrawal from the competition surprised everyone.

regulate (verb) [transitive]

/ˈreɡjuleɪt/

to control something, especially by making it work in a particular way

Her mother strictly regulates how much TV she can watch.

buzz (noun) [ C usually singular ] informal

/bʌz/

a feeling of excitement, energy, and pleasure that something gives you

I get a buzz out of public speaking.

Cambridge 19 | Test 1 | Passage 3

The persistence and peril of misinformation

Misinformation—both deliberately promoted and accidentally

deliberately (adverb)

/dɪˈlɪbərətli/

intentionally

I'm sure he says these things deliberately to annoy me.

roughly (adverb)

/ˈrʌf.li/

approximately

Sales are up by roughly 10 per cent.

deceive (verb) [transitive]

/dɪˈsiːv/

to make somebody believe something that is not true

The company deceived customers by selling old computers as new ones.

Cambridge 8 | Test 1 | Passage 2

Air Traffic Control in the USA

An accident that occurred in the skies over the Grand Canyon in 1956 resulted in the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to regulate and oversee the operation of aircraft in the skies over the United States, which were becoming quite congested. The resulting structure of air traffic control has greatly increased the safety of flight in the United States, and similar air traffic control procedures are also in place over much of the rest of the world.

occur (verb) [intransitive]

/əˈkɜːr/

to happen

Three major events occurred in my life that year.

oversee (verb) [transitive]

/ˌoʊvərˈsiː/

to watch somebody/something and make sure that a job or an activity is done correctly

As marketing manager, her job is to oversee all the company's

congested (adjective)

/kənˈdʒestɪd/

crowded; full of traffic

The roads to Bordeaux were heavily congested.

Cambridge 18 | Test 4 | Passage 2

The Growth Mindset

Over the past century, a powerful idea has taken root in the educational landscape. The concept of intelligence as something innate has been supplanted by the idea that intelligence is not fixed, and that, with the right training, we can be the authors of our own cognitive capabilities. Psychologist Alfred Binet, the developer of the first intelligence tests, was one of many 19th-century scientists who held that earlier view and sought to quantify cognitive ability. Then, in the early 20th century, progressive thinkers revolted against the notion that inherent ability is destiny. Instead, educators such as John Dewey argued that every child’s intelligence could be developed, given the right environment.

innate (adjective)

/ɪˈneɪt/

An innate quality or ability is one that you were born with, not one you have learned

Many children seem to have an innate sense of justice.

progressive (adjective)

/prəˈɡres.ɪv/

Progressive ideas or systems are new and modern, encouraging change in

Are you in favor of progressive teaching methods?

notion (noun) [countable]

/ˈnoʊ.ʃən/

a belief or idea

He didn’t have a clear notion of what he had to do.

Cambridge 18 | Test 2 | Passage 2

Living with artificial intelligence

This has been the decade of AI, with one astonishing feat after another. A chess-playing AI that can defeat not only all human chess players, but also all previous human-programmed chess machines, after learning the game in just four hours? That’s yesterday’s news, what’s next? True, these prodigious accomplishments are all in so-called narrow AI, where machines perform highly specialized tasks. But many experts believe this restriction is very temporary. By mid-century, we may have artificial general intelligence (AGI)—machines that can achieve human-level performance on the full range of tasks that we ourselves can tackle.

defeat (verb) [transitive]

1: to win against someone in a fight, war, or competition

2: to stop something from being successful

Scientists from around the world are working to defeat the disease.

yesterday's news

something or someone that was popular once, but is not popular now

That actor is yesterday's news.

prodigious (adjective)

/prəˈdɪdʒ.əs/

very large or powerful and causing surprise; impressive

Americans are the world’s most prodigious consumers.

as though (phrase)

as it would be if

You look as though you've been running a marathon!

millennium (noun) [countable]

/mɪˈlen.i.əm/

a period of 1,000 years, or the time when a period of 1,000 years ends

Imagine what the world will be like at the end of the next millennium.

astonishing (adjective)

/əˈstɑː.nɪ.ʃɪŋ/

very surprising

Her writing shows astonishing depth.

prior (adjective) [before noun]

existing or happening before something else, or before a particular time

The course required no prior knowledge of Spanish.

derive from (phrasal verb)

/dɪˈraɪv/

to obtain a substance from something

The new drug is derived from fish oil.

hold someone/something back (phrasal verb)

/hoʊld/

to stop someone or something developing or doing as well as they should

She felt that having children would hold her back.

get your kicks (from) (idiom)

to get enjoyment or pleasure

He gets his kicks from embarrassing his teammates.

follow (something) through (phrasal verb)

to do what needs to be done to complete something

He didn't follow through with his promise to help.

on the cusp (idiom)

at the point when something is about to change to something else

She is on the cusp of being a star.

catastrophe (noun) [ C ]

/kəˈtæs.trə.fi/

a sudden event that causes very great trouble or destruction

The emigration of scientists is a catastrophe for the country.

Cambridge 18 | Test 2 | Passage 3

An Ideal City

The Renaissance marked the transition from the 15th century

on the cusp (idiom)

at the point when something is about to change to something else

She is on the cusp of being a star.

widespread (adjective)

/ˌwaɪdˈspred/

existing or happening in many places or among many people

The plan received widespread support throughout the country.

catastrophe (noun) [ C ]

/kəˈtæs.trə.fi/

a sudden event that causes very great trouble or destruction

The emigration of scientists is a catastrophe for the country.

Cambridge 18 | Test 1 | Passage 3

Conquering Earth’s space junk problem

Last year, commercial companies, military and civil departments and amateurs sent more than 400 satellites into orbit, over four times the yearly average in the previous decade. Numbers could rise even more sharply if leading space companies follow through on plans to deploy hundreds to thousands of large constellations of satellites to space in the next few years.

orbit (noun) [ C or U ]

the curved path through which objects in space move around a planet or star

The satellite is now in a stable orbit.

follow (something) through (phrasal verb)

to do what needs to be done to complete something

He didn't follow through with his promise to help.

deploy (verb) [transitive}

to use something or someone, especially in an effective way

Two scientists were deployed to study the problem.