ZHAW Proficiency XI

In times (1) _____ by, only the literate knew what was going on in the world, and (2) _____ only after a long delay. 

But now it is possible for any of us to watch world events as they occur. (1) _____ has shortened the distance that divides our private lives (2) _____ the outside world to (3) _____ an extent as television. 

Time and (1) ____ , television transports us to the habitats of rare animals, and we may identify (2) _____ them. 

Concern for damage to the environment extends far and (1) ____ . 

We worry about the influence of technology not just in our cities but on us (1) _____ . 

Increasingly we see (1) _____ as part of the planet (2) _____ than in isolation. 

(1) _____ was once the prerogative of scholars is now accessible to countless people through the medium of television. 

(2) _____ this form of popular education can be regarded as superficial, it represents a broadening of knowlegdge. 

Of the legions _____ twentieth century scientists, only a handful won worldwide recognition. 

Even (1) _____ have won the greatest prize of all, the Nobel Prize, and rarer still are those who have won two. So (2) _____ , only three people have succeeded in achieving this, but there is one scientist whose achievements would have merited four at the (3) _____ least. 

(1) _____ he died a few years (2) _____ soon to receive the first Nobel Prize, Louis Pasteur is arguably the most celebrated of any scientists, (3) ____ name appearing (4) _____ countless products in homes, shops and supermarkets (5) ____ this day. 

Pioneer scientists, conqueror of disease and saviour of industries, Pasteur combined soaring intellectual powers (1) ____ down-to-earth pragmatism, a combination which allowed him, to (2) ____ intents and purposes, to dispose of centuries of pseudo-science. 

In the year 1822 when he was born, the life sciences were based on _____ more than medieval fairy tales. 

The underlying causes of many diseases were quite unknown. What explanations ____ exist were utterly bizarre. 

For instance, malaria was said to have (1) ____ origins and 'miasmas' emanating from swamps, whereas influenza was linked to the influence of celestial events, (2) _____ as the passage of comets. Pasteur exploded (3) _____ and many other myths. 

Throughout our lives, right from the moment when (1) _____ infants we cry to express hunger, we are engaging in social interaction of one form or (2) _____ . 

Each and (1) ____ time we encounter fellow human beings, some kind of social interaction will take place, (2) _____ it's getting on a bus and paying the fare for the journey, or socialising with friends. 

It goes without _____ , therefore, that we need the ability to communicat. 

Without some method of transmitting intentions, we should be (1) _____ a complete loss when it (2) _____ to interacting socially. 

Communication involves the exchange of information, which can be (1) _____ from a gesture to a friend signalling boredom to the presentation of a university thesis which may (2) _____ ever be read by a handful of others, or it could be something in (3) _____ the two. 

Our highly developed languages set us (1) ____ from animals. (2) ____ for these languages, we could not communicate sophisticated or abstract idear. 

(1) _____ could we talk or write about people or objects (2) _____ immediately present. (3) _____ we restricted to discussing objects already present, we would be (4) _____ to make abstract generalisations about the world. 

In 1912, the world's top matehmaticians began to receive letters which were _____ of incredibly complex formulae. 

They came from Madras, in India, (1) _____ a 23-year-old accounts clerk named Srinivasa Ramanujan had seemingly (2) _____ up with hundreds of new soutions to known mathematical problems (3) ____ any form of assistance or training. 

For the most (1) _____ , the professional mathematicians' response was the usual one (2) _____ faced with eccentric letters: they consigned them straight (3) _____ the bin. 

But in 1913, some reached G. H. Hardy, a leading authority in number theory at Cambridge University. He too, initially dismissed the letters (1) _____ the work of an eccentric, but unable to (2) _____ them out of his head, he eventually subjected them to closer scrutiny. 

After a few hours, Hardy arrived (1) ____ the conclusion that what he had (2) ____ him was the work of a mathematical genius, a view confirmed by colleagues with (3) _____ he shared his discovery. 

Before very (1) ____ , Ramanujan had received an invitation to Cambridge and, once there, he soon proved (2) ____ worth. A fruitful collaboration with Hardy (3) _____ in the opening up of vast areas of mathematical research, still being worked on to (4) _____ day. 

For many people, mobile email is a habit they couldn't give up even (1) _____ they wanted to. And (2) ____ should they want to? (3) _____ all, the ability to send and receive emails from a mobile device means they can stay in touch with colleagues, friends and family, whether they're standing in a queue at the supermarket, downing a quick cup of coffee in (4) _____ meetings or killing (5) _____ before a flight. 

It's fair to say that access to email while (1) ____ the move has done much to whet appetites for other kinds of collaborative tools. 

What's (1) _____ , there's a whoe new way of working that has opened up in recent years and, (2) _____ a result, there's a  general expectation that efficiency and productivity don't necessarily take (3) _____ within the four walls of an organisation's physical offices. 

In fiction robots have a personality, (1) _____ reality is disappointingly different. Although sophisticated (2) ____ to assemble cars and assist during complex surgery, modern robots are dumb automatons, (3) _____ of striking up relationships with their human operations. 

However, change is (1) _____ the horizon. Engineers argue that, as robots begin to make (2) _____ a bigger part of society, they will need a way to interact with humans. To this end they will need artificial personalities. 

The big question is this: what does a synthetic companion need to have so that you want to engage (1) ______ it over a long period of time? Phones and computers have already shown the (2) ______ to which people can develop relationships with inanimate electronic objects. 

Looking further (1) _____ , engineers envisage robots helping around the house, integrating with the web to place supermarket orders using email. 

Programming the robot with a human-like persona and (1) ______ it the ability to learn its users' preferences, will help the person feel at ease with it.