DIAGNOSTIC TEST (PART 13) CAMBRIDGE PREPARATION FOR THE TOEFL® IBT TEST

 

CAMBRIDGE PREPARATION FOR THE TOEFL® IBT TEST DIAGNOSTIC TEST (PART 13)

 

WRITING SECTION Directions: This section measures your ability to use writing to communicate in an academic environment. There will be two writing tasks. For the first writing task, you will read a passage and listen to a lecture, and then answer a question based on what you have read and heard. For the second writing task, you will answer a question based on your own knowledge and experience. Now read the directions for the first writing task. Writing Based on Reading and Listening Directions: For this task, you will have three minutes to read a passage about an academic topic. You may take notes on the passage while you read. Then you will listen to a lecture about the same topic. While you listen, you may also take notes. Then you will have 20 minutes to write a response to a question that asks you about the relationship between the lecture you heard and the reading passage. Try to answer the question as completely as possible using information from the reading passage and the lecture. The question does not ask you to express your personal opinion. You can refer to the reading passage again when it is time for you to write. You may use your notes to help you answer the question. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words long. Your response will be judged on the quality of your writing and on the completeness and accuracy of the content. If you finish your response before time is up, go on to the second writing task. On the day of the test, you will be required to type your response into a computer. Therefore, if you are taking this test in the book, practice typing your response on a computer.   INTEGRATED TASK Directions: You have three minutes to read and take notes from the reading passage. Next, listen to the related lecture and take notes. Then write your response. Productivity and Rewards An important management principle is that when behavior is rewarded, it tends to be repeated. It follows that in many business enterprises, the approach to getting employees to work hard or improve productivity is to reward them with money or company stock. In addition, some enterprises use other forms of compensation such as special privileges or perhaps promotion or job reassignments or even company-paid luxury vacations and other bonuses in kind. All such rewards are usually tied in to some index of performance, which precisely calculates the relative amount of increased productivity.   Whatever the type of reward given, managerial consultants point out that the promise of such incentives improves employee attitudes, motivation, and productivity. Typical business handbooks describing compensation methods advocate giving the greatest rewards to those who perform the best. For example, a well-known academic text on incentives points out that "the closer the link between job performance and rewards, the greater the motivational effect."   Advocates of improving productivity through rewards tacitly accept that people are rather like physical bodies that require the application of some external motivating force to be set in motion. Furthermore, they argue that any such incentives must have a high perceived value to the employee and must also be perceived as within the reach of that person. If the productivity goal appears beyond the reach of the person striving for the reward, then the motivational effect will be lower and productivity may decline. But if the reward system is correctly structured, productivity experts argue, it is possible to persuade people to achieve remarkable results. START► CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD AUDIO  CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD AUDIOSCRIPT  Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about. STOP►

 

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