Criterion A: Comprehending Spoken and Visual Texts

Watch the following TEDTalk about artificial intelligence:

Grady Booch:Don't fear superintelligent AI



You should create 3-4 questions that are inspired by some of the key words/sentence openers etc. from EACH of the three categories (and ten questions in total). Read through all of the questions and key words first and look up any words whose definition you are unsure of:

i) Evaluating and drawing conclusions 
Begin questions using words such as: define; give examples; compare and contrast; argue; give reasons for; judge; justify; criticize; consider; conclude; critique; summarize; appraise; suggest; decide; evaluate.

ii) Author's / Speaker's choice of style, format and ideas
What are the ideas, messages and attitudes presented by the creator/speaker? What is the creator/speaker trying to tell us? How has he or she expressed this meaning/opinion/concept?
What is the tone of the text (formal, sarcastic, ironic, aggressive, familiar, charming, rude, enthusiastic)?
What does the tone of the text tell us about the meaning and the creator’s/speaker’s attitude towards ...?
[List of words, images or an extract from the text]. Why has the creator/author/speaker used these words/images?
Who is the audience? What has the creator/author done to get the interest of the viewer?
Why has the creator/author chosen these words/images/this layout and presentation?
How does the creator/author of this presentation create mood through the visuals that contradict the spoken message?

iii) Opinions / Personal responses
How has this webcast/website/advertisement/presentation/cartoon/story/documentary/short film/music video influenced your ideas or feelings about ...? 
What did you think of the ...? 
Have you ever felt like ...? 
What was your reaction to ...? 
What/how did you feel when …? 
Do you believe …? 
Do you agree with the creator/author? 
“The speaker shows bias when he refers to one of the nationalities.” Explain, providing specific examples. 
“This is an effective advertisement.” Support or oppose this statement, referring to the efficacy or lack of efficacy of propaganda techniques used. 
How does the second speaker express disagreement without doing so directly? 
What effect do you think the creator/author was aiming for by using a mix of formal language and slang in the final dialogue? Support your answer with examples.

Adjective Order

Work through the following exercises to consolidate your understanding of adjective order:

Adjective Order 1

Adjective Order 2

Adjective Order 3

Adjective Order 4

Preparing for the listening exam...

All Four Poems...

Quickdraw

I wear the two, the mobile and the landline phones,
like guns, slung from the pockets on my hips. I’m all
alone. You ring, quickdraw, your voice a pellet
in my ear, and hear me groan.


You’ve wounded me.
Next time, you speak after the tone. I twirl the phone,
then squeeze the trigger of my tongue, wide of the mark.
You choose your spot, then blast me

through the heart.
And this is love, high noon, calamity, hard liqour
in the old Last Chance saloon. I show the mobile
to the sheriff; in my boot, another one’s

concealed. You text them both at once. I reel.
Down on my knees, I fumble for the phone,
read the silver bullets of your kiss. Take this …
and this … and this … and this … and this …

The Manhunt – Simon Armitage

After the first phase,
after passionate nights and intimate days,
only then would he let me trace
the frozen river which ran through his face,
only then would he let me explore
the blown hinge of his lower jaw,
and handle and hold
the damaged, porcelain collar-bone,
and mind and attend
the fractured rudder of shoulder-blade,
and finger and thumb
the parachute silk of his punctured lung.
Only then could I bind the struts
and climb the rungs of his broken ribs,
and feel the hurt
of his grazed heart.
Skirting along,
only then could I picture the scan,
the foetus of metal beneath his chest
where the bullet had finally come to rest.
Then I widened the search,
traced the scarring back to its source
to a sweating, unexploded mine
buried deep in his mind, around which
every nerve in his body had tightened and closed.
Then, and only then, did I come close.

The River God

I may be smelly, and I may be old,
Rough in my pebbles, reedy in my pools,
But where my fish float by I bless their swimming
And I like the people to bathe in me, especially women.
But I can drown the fools
Who bathe too close to the weir, contrary to rules.
And they take their time drowning
As I throw them up now and then in a spirit of clowning.
Hi yih, yippity-yap, merrily I flow,
O I may be an old foul river but I have plenty of go.
Once there was a lady who was too bold
She bathed in me by the tall black cliff where the water runs cold,
So I brought her down here
To be my beautiful dear.
Oh will she stay with me will she stay
This beautiful lady, or will she go away?
She lies in my beautiful deep river bed with many a weed
To hold her, and many a waving reed.
Oh who would guess what a beautiful white face lies there
Waiting for me to smooth and wash away the fear
She looks at me with. Hi yih, do not let her
Go. There is no one on earth who does not forget her
Now. They say I am a foolish old smelly river
But they do not know of my wide original bed
Where the lady waits, with her golden sleepy head.
If she wishes to go I will not forgive her.

Out of the Blue

You have picked me out.
Through a distant shot of a building burning
you have noticed now
that a white cotton shirt is twirling, turning.

In fact I am waving, waving.
Small in the clouds, but waving, waving.
Does anyone see
a soul worth saving?

So when will you come?
Do you think you are watching, watching
a man shaking crumbs
or pegging out washing?

I am trying and trying.
The heat behind me is bullying, driving,
but the white of surrender is not yet flying.
I am not at the point of leaving, diving.

A bird goes by.
The depth is appalling. Appalling
that others like me
should be wind-milling, wheeling, spiralling, falling.

Are your eyes believing,
believing
that here in the gills
I am still breathing.

But tiring, tiring.
Sirens below are wailing, firing.
My arm is numb and my nerves are sagging.
Do you see me, my love. I am failing, flagging.

Quickdraw, by Carol Ann Duffy

For more information about this poem, follow this link: BBC: Quickdraw Analysis