Passage 1

Previous generations of seemingly smart toys usually relied on clever tricks. Remember Furbies, the ’90s sensation? They seemed to learn from their owners, because they gradually spoke more English, but in fact they’d simply been programmed to use more words as time went on. Humans, nonetheless, had the pleasant illusion of being the instructor.

Cozmo does something more than that, though still less than the living thing that my son seems to think it is. Cozmo can sense the world through a camera, and the images it captures get fed to an affiliated smartphone or tablet, which processes the data into a simple model of the world in which the robot finds itself. Are there people around? Are there power cubes to play with? Is it near an edge of a table? It does a simple version of what any autonomous robot must do, from a self-driving car to the pack robots that Boston Dynamics developed for the military.

As you play, software inside Cozmo determines the robot’s state: It can get excited, scared, nervous, happy, sad, frustrated. Sofman calls this software the toy’s “emotion engine”; it links the sensory technology to the robot’s behavior. Anki has hired animators to design movements for the robot to make. The animators create new ways to show how Cozmo is feeling, and play them back through its body to see how people interpret the robot’s actions. The goal is to choreograph movements and expressions that will induce genuine emotions in the toy’s owner.

1 Which of the following statements can be derived from the given text?

a)Furbies were really smart and learnt more words as time went on b)The author’s son thinks of Cozmo as less than a living thing c)Cozmo is like autonomous cars in some ways d)The military uses robots for fighting in the war e)Cozmo’s expressions are designed to bring out emotions from humans

Passage 2

Restless, he dreamed of his shipwreck, and dreamed it as a man of wit, who even in dreams, or especially in them, must take care that as propositions embellish a conception, so reservations make it vital, while mysterious connections give it density; considerations make it profound; emphases uplift, allusions dissimulate, transmutations make subtle.

In those days, and on those seas, more ships were wrecked than returned safely home; but to one shipwrecked for the first time the experience must have been a source of recurrent nightmares, which the habit of expressing in appropriate conceits must have made as picturesque as a Last Judgement.

Since the evening before, it was as if the air had sickened with, and it seemed that the eye of Heaven, brimming with tears, could support no longer the sight of the expanse of waves. The brush of nature had now diluted the line of the horizon and was sketching distances of indefinite provinces.

Roberto, whose viscera have already predicted an imminent catastrophe, flings himself on his pallet, rocked now by a nurse of giants, dozes amid uneasy dreams of which he dreams the dream he relates, and beholds before his very eyes a host of galactic wonders. He wakes to the bacchanal of thunder and the cries of the sailors, then streams of water invade his berth, Dr. Byrd looks in and, running, cries to him to come up on deck and cling firmly to anything more firm than himself.

2 What can be inferred about being shipwrecked?

a)Every shipwreck feels like it is the first one b)They are picturesque and conceited c)More ships return safely home than before d)Later shipwrecks might not cause recurrent nightmares. e)One must make it a habit of expressing them accurately.

3 From the context in which it appears, the ‘Last Judgement’ could be which of the following?

a)A painting b)The judgement day c)A nightmare d)An appropriation e)An experience

4 From the context in which it appears, ‘Catarrh’ could be which of the following?

a)Evening b)Disease c)Heaven d)Tears e)Blindness

5 In the third paragraph of the passage, the author describes the relationship between the sea scape and nature similar to one between

a)A painting and a painting b)A patient and a doctor c) An artist and a creation d) The blind and blindness e) A province and a ruler

6 The phrase ‘’rocked by a nurse of giants’’ signifies which of the following?

a)That Roberto is severely ill b)The violent movement of the vessel c)Dreams of impending disaster d)The galactic spectacle that is visible e)Thunder and the confusion of sailors

7 In the context in which appears ‘’Bacchanal of thunder’’ most closely means

a)A great celebration b)Disturbing noises c)Uneasy dreams d)Flow of water e)Rough skies

There are more similarities between life and reading comprehension that you could care to shake a stick at. What are those, you ask?

The Devil (or God, if you are so inclined) is in the details.

Quite often, it is the little things that matter when you are looking at a passage. The difference between a little and little can quite often spell doom. These could decide on whether you are prescribing a live saving or a life altering medicine to your patient, if you are doctor taking the OET reading comprehension test.

You know the solution but you do not know the answer.

Many questions in reading comprehension put you in the same spot. You know the question, you know the answer, but the answer that you know does not seem to be a part of the answer options at all. Stumped? We get you. This is what the GRE does with test takers. The answer options can get so abstruse that you do not know if you have signed your soul away to the devil or if he did his to you.

Was it the same sentence you have just read?

Quite often you end up reading the same sentence over and over again and it still barely makes any sense. You are so wound up on the garden path that before you realise, you are just on the first sentence while the clock tells you that you should be in the last sentence, that too of the next passage. Managing time can be an absolute nightmare in any reading comprehension test you take.

If you have felt any of these things, welcome to the club. Take the test, and have fun!