20 July 2015

Gentlefolk

This post describes the two written exams (for Western Culture and English News) at the end of the recent semester.

Also some photos taken before our departure from the campus.

(1) Western Culture

82 Sophomore students sat the Western Culture exam 7 - 9pm on Sunday 28 June 2015.

The exam comprised four Parts (see below).  It was “open book”, that is students could take in any written materials such as the text book and notes and a paper dictionary. 

I normally focus on American Culture, but two of the four classes had already done American Culture, so this time we studied the United Kingdom (11 weeks) and Australia (5 weeks).

The students in the four classes were all Double Majors, so among the busiest and brightest. Three students (Albert, Connie and Ocean) got all the 20 questions in Part 1 (True / False) completely right; 27 got all the 20 questions in Part 2 (Multiple choice) completely right; and one student (Stephanie) got all the 30 questions in Part 3 (Fill in blanks) completely right.

Everyone passed and the average mark was over 80%, which makes me think the exam may have been too easy?  I’ll let you be the judge of that – the following are 10 questions from each of Parts 1, 2 and 3, and also the most popular three essay questions in Part 4.

PART 1: True / False

1.      By GDP/PPP the UK was the 8^th largest economy in the world in 2013.

2.      The area of England is larger than that of Shandong Province.

3.      England was part of the Roman Empire for 400 years.

4.      Queen Elizabeth 1^st married and had six children, 3 boys & 3 girls.

5.      The UK has a written constitution which was adopted in 1888.

6.      David Cameron, Barack Obama and Tony Abbott are all left-handed.

7.      William Shakespeare studied at Cambridge University.

8.      All children in the UK attend government schools.

9.      13 July (commemorating the Battle of Boyne)  is the UK’s National Day

10.  Australia is bigger in area than China.

(Answers: 1 T; 2 F; 3 T; 4 F; 5 F; 6 T; 7 F; 8 F; 9 F; 10 F)

PART 2: Multiple Choice

1. For how many years did Queen Victoria rule:

A. 33; B. 43; C. 53; D. 63

2.  How many seats in the UK House of Commons:

A. 500; B. 550; C. 600; D. 650

3. In which year was Richard Branson given the ‘United Nations Citizen of the Year’ Award:

A. 2000; B. 2005; C. 2007; D. 2010

4. Who said of Shakespeare “He was not of an age, but for all time”:

A. William Wordsworth; B. Ben Jonson; C. Charles Dickens; D. Emily Bronte

5. In which year did Charles Dickens write his book “Oliver Twist”:

A; 1838; B. 1840; C. 1842; D. 1844

6. The voter turn-out rate in the 2015 UK General Election was:

A. 75.3%; B. 59.4%; C. 61.4%; D. 66.1%

7. The current British Chancellor of the Exchequer is:

A. George Osborne; B. Gordon Brown; C. Ed Miliband; D. Nick Clegg

8. How many time zones does Australia have:

A. One; B. Two; C. Three; D. Four

9. What percent of Australia is arable land:

A. 5.5%; B. 6.2%; C. 8.9%; D. 13.2%

10. In which year did Captain James Cook claim Australia for Great Britain:

A. 1760; B. 1768; C. 1770; D. 1778

(Answers: 1 D; 2 D; 3 C; 4 B; 5 A; 6 D; 7 A; 8 C; 9 B; 10 C)

PART 3: Fill in the blanks

1. The flag of the United Kingdom is called the ______________________ (name).
2. Great Britain comprises England, Wales and _________________ (name).
3. In 886AD England was unified by ______________ (name).
4. King Henry 8^th founded the Church of England in __________ (year).
5. Richard Branson’s company (conglomerate) is called the _______________ (name).
6. The name of Robert Maxwell’s big yacht was the ___________________ (name).
7. Charles Dickens worked in a factory when he was ______ (number) years old.
8. The full name of Australia is the ____________________ (name).
9. Australia is located in a region of the world called _____________ (name).
10. The ship commanded by Captain James Cook on his first voyage of discovery was called ________________ (name).

(Answers: 1 Union Jack; 2 Scotland; 3 King Alfred; 4  1532; 5  Virgin Group; 6 Lady Ghislaine; 7  12 years old; 8  Commonwealth of Australia; 9  Oceania; 10 HMS Endeavour)

PART 4: Written essays

Choose three of the six options and write a minimum of 100 words on each question. (The following three essay questions were the most popular)

1. Describe the rise and fall of the British Empire.  In your opinion, how could a relatively small country like the UK establish such a big empire? How could Britain defeat China in the “Opium Wars”?
2. Describe the British political system.  What is the role of the monarch in Britain today?  In your opinion, why have some countries kept a King, Queen or Emperor?  Do you think it is a good idea to have a monarchy?
3. Give an introduction to Australia’s history and development.  Describe the place of Aboriginals in Australian society today.  How can their situation be improved?

How would you have done in the exam?

Next semester, starting in September 2015, I will teach Western Culture to two classes.  They are both new classes for me so I will revert to USA.  Realistically America is of much greater importance to China than either the UK or Australia.

(2) English News exam

How to test a student’s knowledge of English News?  While I enjoyed teaching this subject, I was concerned how to test the end result. 

When I asked the University's teaching office for guidance, they basically said "this is an elective course (so not very important); just do whatever you want".

Finally I decided on the following format: the exam paper comprised seven one-page articles of recent news which the class had discussed during the semester (out of a total of about 80 articles we discussed). For each article, the students had to do a Summary (based on the 5Ws - who, where, when, what, and why – we practised that every week) and then answer three or four questions related to the theme of the article.

The following were the 7 articles I chose for the exam paper:

1. Nanjing procuratorate decides against arresting abuse suspect, Xinhua, 2015-04-19

Theme: A woman severely beat her adopted 10 year old son for not completing his homework.  She was widely criticised, but the prosecutor decided not to arrest and charge her as there would be no one to look after the boy.

2. China to regulate square-dancing, China Daily, 2015.03.10

Theme: Line dancing in public areas is a popular pastime with senior citizens.  But there have been increasing complaints about noise. The government has now issued regulations to control this activity.

3. Crest fined $1m for false advertising, China Daily, 2015.03.10

Theme: A TV advertisement for Crest toothpaste (Proctor & Gamble) promised whiter teeth in one day. The Municipal Govt of Shanghai said this was a blatant case of false advertising, and fined the company just over $1 million.

4. Expert urges higher taxes on cigarettes, China Daily, 2015.05.12

Theme: The tax on cigarettes has risen from 5% to 11%, which is expected to increase the retail price by about 10%. An American expert has recommended a much higher increase as a dis-incentive to smoking.

5. Tiny Times sweeps Golden Broom Awards, China Daily, 2015.03.17 

Theme: Similar to the US Raspberries (“The Razzies”) for the worst films, China has the Golden Broom Awards.  Tiny Times 3, part of a popular series, got most “Broom Awards”.

6. Online dating websites facing tougher regulation, China Daily, 2015-05-18   

Theme: The govt has closed over 120 online dating websites which they said were basically porn or sex sites. Another 28 have been told to improve their sites.

7. Over 60% of underground water substandard, ECNS, 2015-04-24

Theme: A govt report said that 61% of China’s groundwater was poor or very poor quality.

The exam was held 7 - 9pm on Monday 22 June 2015.

I was a bit worried that seven articles might be too many for the students to handle, but in the event only a handful didn’t answer all 7 questions.  Two (out of 56) failed, while most did very well. 

I am really impressed that these students can sit a fairly complex exam in another language.  The standard of English varies, but overall they could follow the classes and then write an exam paper – I hasten to add that these were not English Major students (their majors were mainly engineering subjects such as petroleum engineering or chemical engineering or geology, etc).  

Impressive; can’t imagine Australian or American students doing as well in a second language.

Unfortunately I won't have the English News class next semester - apparently there was a clash with another class I was assigned.  I enjoyed this class (once I worked out a suitable approach) and the feedback from students was positive - several said that they had never been interested in current affairs but were now regularly reading online newspapers.  A rewarding outcome for a teacher.

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Recent photos

End-of-semester dinner with colleagues: Gautier Plassais and his wife Hao Yu; Sun Yu; Vera; Alex (me); Paul Finkbeiner; Michael Christensen; Steven McCune.

At our favorite shop in Ji Mo Lu market in Qingdao..

Saying goodbye to Paul Finkbeiner who is returning to the US after 4 years in China.  A lovely young man, he has been a wonderful colleague and friend.  We wish him well in the future.

Dinner with valued friends, Professor Liu Bao, his wife Wang Jun Hong and their daughter Liu Si Qi (Scarlet).

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That’s all for this post.

Take care; keep well and keep smiling.

Best wishes, Alex & Vera Olah

English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao

www.upc.edu.cn

Monday 20 July 2015 (currently in Hong Kong).