Optimism Bias (Listening)

1) What is the lecture mainly about?

A) A comparison of optimistic and pessimistic people with their respective advantages and disadvantages.
B) The view that people as a whole need optimistic bias in their lives.
C) The process by which optimism occurs and the implications of it on society.
D) The mechanisms and advantages of positive thinking.


2) Which of the following is NOT an example of optimism bias?

A) Newly-weds believing they have a very low likelihood of divorce.
B) An employee underestimating the cost of a project.
C) A person believing that family's in general society will be less successful than their own family.
D) A person overestimating their likelihood of getting cancer. 


3) Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a reason that a pessimistic outlook is bad life strategy?

A) People with this view are usually less happy because they are worried about their future.
B) Pessimistic people don't have realistic expectations of the future.
C) This strategy will never affect the real world in a positive way for that person.
D) Pessimists miss the chance to anticipate the positive events in their future.


4) According to the lecturer, why do people suffer from optimism bias?

A) A part of their brain is inefficient.
B) Their brain overcompensate for negative information that they are given.
C) The don't always understand the negative information they are given.
D) They can't adjust their lifestyle to match the negative information because they are addicted to the positive things in their life.


5) Which of the following best summarizes the professors opinion of optimism bias?

A) It is not completely negative but people need to be careful.
B) It is something that society would be better without.
C) With too much optimism bias, progress is impossible.
D) Life is more challenging but also more rewarding with optimism bias. 

Communicating with the Future (Reading)

Click the link below for the reading passage:

Communicating with the Future

1) According to paragraph 1, the radiation warning symbol:

A) looks like a harmless object to most people.
B) may change in the future.
C) may one day not adequately explain the danger.
D) is an essential danger symbol for the future.


2) The author mention "early humans" in line 1 or paragraph 3 to:

A) explain the difference between modern humans and prehistoric ones.
B) illustrate how much we have developed as a species.
C) show that manmade objects can last for millennia.
D) explain the vast cultural changes that can occur in thousands of years.


3) The message on the waste facility must be comprehensible to anyone because future civilizations:

A) may have technology comparable to our own.
B) will likely have a different economic structure.
C) will be more advanced than we are.
D) could be quite different from us in several ways.


4) Which of the following words is closest in meaning to "comprised of" (paragraph 5, line 4)?

A) constituting
B) collected
C) developed
D) discussing


5) Which of the following is NOT a reason that the facility might be opened in the future?

A) a search for ancient artifacts
B) climate manipulation
C) mining operations
D) human burial


6) Which of the following words is closest in meaning to "sprang" (paragraph 7, line 1)?

A) escaped
B) materialized
C) distributed
D) jumped


7) From paragraph 7 line 9, what does the word "they" refer to?

A) humans
B) panel members
C) materials
D) discoverers


8) What can be inferred about future generations from paragraph 9?

A) Their language may not yet exist.
B) They will not be able to uncover the radioactive material at the site.
C) They will have difficulty understanding the basic information left behind.
D) They may try to change the message on the main wall.


9) The sentence "Still others advised against erecting any warning monuments at all, worrying that the markers themselves– if not properly interpreted– may rouse the curiosity of their discoverers enough that they might explore further, to disastrous ends," (paragraph 11) can best be restated as:

A) People are more likely to investigate the site if there are markers so they should make sure any monuments can be properly understood.
B) Some people believe it would be better to avoid constructing any monuments since humans may excavate the site to satisfy their curiosity.
C) It has been suggested that the markers may not be properly interpreted and therefore nothing should be placed above the site.
D) It seems likely that future civilizations will end in disaster if they explore the site due to misleading markings, so it would be better if the site was vacant.


10) Choose three sentences that best summarize the passage.

A) Researchers are developing a number of strategies to communicate with future generations.

B) The US Department of Energy is developing a nuclear waste storage facility that needs to remain closed for thousands of years.

C) It is inevitable that future generations will attempt to open the waste facility.

D) Future societies will likely have quite different technology to our own.

E) At the moment, researchers are considering a variety of ideas, including a massive landscape of thorns or perhaps an arrangement of black blocks.

F) It is essential the danger of the site is communicated clearly into the distant future.

How Economic Inequality Harms Societies (Listening)

 The questions are based on the first 6 minutes of the lecture.

1) What is the lecture mainly about?

A) The effect of income divisions on the global economy.
B) The degradation of wealth distribution systems in several countries.
C) The underdevelopment of social services in the United States.
D) The social damage done by poor wealth distribution.


2) At 1:48 in the lecture, the professor says, "The explanation of that paradox is that, within our societies, we're looking at relative income or social position, social status -- where we are in relation to each other and the size of the gaps between us. And as soon as you've got that idea, you should immediately wonder: what happens if we widen the differences, or compress them, make the income differences bigger or smaller?  And that's what I'm going to show you"

Why does he say, "what happens if we widen the differences, or compress them, make the income differences bigger or smaller?"

A) He is making a suggestion to governments with developed economies.
B) He is introducing the main point of the lecture.
C) He is asking the audience to come up with an answer.
D) He is introducing plans developed by the British government.


3) Which of the following would you expect from increased income inequality in a society? (Mark Yes/No for each choice)

A) Decreased social mobility.
B) Increased drug and alcohol addiction.
C) Improved children's math and literacy scores.
D) Increased life expectancy.
E) Increased infant mortality.


4) Why does the professor mention the UNICEF index of child well-being?

A) He wanted to use an independent set of criteria to strengthen his argument.
B) He believes that child well-being is the best indicator of the health of a society.
C) He believes his study is more convincing than the UNICEF one.
D) He is attempting to present a counter-argument to his research.


5) What is the relationship between trust and income inequality in a society?

A) Increased income inequality leads to higher levels of trust.
B) Lower levels of trust lead to increased income inequality
C) Higher levels of trust lead to decreased income inequality.
D) Decreased income inequality leads to higher levels of trust.

How to Buy Happiness (Listening)

1) What is the main topic of the lecture?

A) Reasons that people with money are unhappy.
B) Ways to use money to make yourself happier.
C) The psychological effects of money and spending habits.
D) The social influence of money.


2) Which of the following is NOT a common problem for people who win the lottery?

A) They are overly generous and become depressed because they have nothing left for themselves.
B) Their relationships suffer because their friends and family make financial requests.
C) Winners often become less social and more selfish.
D) They overspend and become trapped in debt.


3) Which of the following is true of the Vancouver study? (choose two options)

A) Coffee was frequently a prosocial and a personal spending choice.
B) The amount of money used significantly affected the participants happiness.
C) People who participated in personal spending were happier at the end of the day than those who spent prosocially.
D) The participants were not good global representatives due to their social standing and wealth.


4) What was a significant discovery the researchers made when studying differences and similarities across cultures?

A) Canadian people often buy small gifts for others while Ugandans buy lifesaving medicine.
B) The specific way the money is spent has an important effect on the amount of happiness felt by the gift giver.
C) Men often buy things for women selflessly.
D) Giving charity is almost universally well correlated to happiness.


5) At 07:36, why does the speaker say, "What about your work life, which is where we spend all the rest of our time when we're not with the people we know?"

A) He wants some suggestions from the audience.
B) He believes that people most people don't know their colleagues well.
C) He wants to introduce the next main point of his lecture.
D) He is going to offer advice about how to spend money on strangers.


6) Why did the speaker discuss dodgeball teams?

A) He received a lot of criticism for not including them in his original study.
B) He wanted to show that his conclusions are valid for many different contexts.
C) He wants to demonstrate that spending money on personal hobbies can have benefits.
D) He believes that sales teams and dodgeball teams are quite similar.