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Part B: Reading Comprehension

Read the text about a BBC series and do the following tasks according to the information from the text.

Meet the children of BBC's Generation Gifted

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[a] Anne-Marie is 13 and lives in Port Talbot with her mum, stepdad and four younger siblings.
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She is one of the top students in her school year and should be destined for a bright academic
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future. But her teachers are concerned that Anne-Marie – whose family is on benefits – is losing
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confidence, and that economic disadvantage might stop her fulfilling her potential.
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[b] Her story, and those of five other 13-and-14-year-olds, feature in a TV series called
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Generation Gifted that will help reveal whether social mobility in Britain is a myth.
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It follows the teenagers'progress over three crucial years leading to their GCSE exams.
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Each of them has been identified by their school as gifted in at least one subject;
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each, for different reasons, has a challenging life at home.
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[c] "Why is it that half of the children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds
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don't do so well at GCSE?"asks programme-marker Edmund Coulthard.
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"The answers are partly to do with confidence and partly aspiration.
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If your horizons are small and very few people around you have gone to university,
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it seems the best thing you can hope for is to get a job rather than move into higher education."
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Coulthard's team looked at hundreds of schools in areas where the number of students
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going into higher education is below average.
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"We spoke to dozen of headteachers; they were very keen to talk about the unequal
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playing field in children's lives," he says.
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[d] Having identified potential contributors, the makers of the TV series the brought
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in a child psychologist to assess their suitability for television.
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"Children that age are very shy," says Coulthard, "but they had to be able to express themselves."
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Were they worried the cameras might add to the pressure already felt by the children?
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"Of course," admits the filmmaker, "13 is a tender age, and when you're having a film
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made about you, there are moments that can be though. You have to deal with that in
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the most responsible way you can so that you're not intruding."
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[e] The first two programmes will be updated next year and the year after, though
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Coulthard accepts that there's no guarantee the children will want to take part.
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"You can't safeguard against dropouts."
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[f] Coulthard belives that money and class are assuming greater significance in the
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lives and prospects of those about to enter adulthood.
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"It's even more shocking when seen through the eyes of a child. If you come from a family where
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going to university is an expectation, or you don't live in a disadvantaged part of Britain,
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you'll have no idea about children who don't have those opportunities."
Source: Sarah Carson, Meet the children of BBC2´s Generation Gifted, 14.02.2018,
https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-02-14/generation-gifted-bbc2-children/
a)
Match each of the paragraphs a-f with one of the headings 1-7.
You may use each number only once. There is one more heading than you need.
1 An explanation for bad results
2 The show will go on
3 Fit for the cameras?
4 The wrong choice
5 Worries about a smart girl
6 Social background divides
7 Six teenagers monitored
paragraph heading
a
b
c
d
e
f
b)
Tick the correct box. Only one answer is correct.
The TV series presents...
a competition between 13-and 14-year-old students.
a game show with smart British teenagers.
talented teenagers from difficult social backgrounds.
Headteachers at British schools were...
unable to talk about their students.
blamed for the inequality at British schools.
willing to discuss social factors in their student's lives.
Mr Coulthard states that wealthy people...
are not aware of the problems children from poor families have.
should help children from poor families to succeed in life.
do not care about children from poor families.
c)
Choose the sentence that best summarizes the main idea of thet text.
Tick the correct box.
Some children fail because nobody understands how talented they really are.
Young people's social background may make it difficult for them to develop their full potential.
TV shows can help people solve the problems of children from poor families.
(10 BE)