Exam practice

• a.The first picture represents the Internet of Things: ordinary devices connected to one another and to the internet, so that a phone can switch on the lights, read the electricity meter or lock the door. The second represents space-based solar power: huge solar panels on satellites, where the Sun shines nearly all the time, sending energy down to the Earth by microwaves.
• b.They will make life easier, safer and cleaner. With the Internet of Things, a farmer in Dang could check the moisture of her soil on her phone and switch on the pump only when the field is dry, saving water and electricity; a smart meter can warn a family when their water tank is leaking; and sensors on bridges and slopes can give early warning of floods and landslides. Space-based solar power could one day give clean electricity day and night, in any weather, without burning coal or oil, and reach places far from power lines. But these technologies also bring new problems: devices that can be hacked, and new kinds of waste. We must use them wisely.

• a.Artificial Intelligence is the ability of a computer or machine to do things that normally need human intelligence: understanding speech, recognizing faces, translating languages, playing chess, or answering questions. It works by learning patterns from huge amounts of data. Voice assistants on phones, Google Translate and chatbots are examples.
• b.Not yet, and perhaps never in the same way. A robot can be very good at one task, often better than a person, but it doesn’t understand what it is doing, doesn’t have feelings, and can’t use common sense the way a child can. Its “intelligence” comes from its programs and the data it was trained on. Scientists disagree about whether machines will ever think as humans do.

• a.humanoid – viii
• b.awe – iii
• c.revolution – vii
• d.celebrity – i
• e.enthusiast – vi
• f.applaud – ii
• g.takeover – v
• h.prototype – iv

a. greeted b. keynote c. the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) d. two and a half e. transform f. a revolution g. robots h. solutions

Sophia is a social humanoid robot, built by Hanson Robotics of Hong Kong, and the world’s first robot citizen (a “citizen” of Saudi Arabia). She champions the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific.

The main highlight, or main attraction, was Sophia herself: her keynote speech and her answers to questions.

According to Sophia, AI can ensure better public services, bring a revolution in agriculture, make better use of limited resources, protect the environment, help end poverty, fight starvation and corruption, and ensure gender equality. It can also connect Nepal to the rest of the world.

The audience was made up of government officials, private sector representatives, civil servants and tech enthusiasts, among others.

She spoke for three minutes: her keynote speech was three minutes long.

To address women’s (gender) empowerment, to combat gender-based violence and to support disaster risk reduction, with a focus also on green energy, youth engagement and recovery after disasters.

AI can help farmers grow more and lose less. A farmer can photograph a sick tomato leaf with a phone app and learn at once which disease it has and how to treat it. AI weather forecasts sent by SMS can tell farmers when to plant, spray or harvest, and warn them of floods and hailstorms. Satellite images read by AI can show which districts are short of rain, so the government can send food before people go hungry. AI can also help the poor directly: chatbots in Nepali can explain how to apply for social security allowances or a loan, and AI translation can bring online lessons to students in their own language. But AI is only a tool: it helps only if people have phones and the internet, if the apps work in Nepali, and if the benefits reach the poorest families, not only the rich.

In Conversation I, Govinda asks Liza about her new apartment, and she describes a place: It’s big. It has got three bedrooms, a comfortable living room and a spacious kitchen. In Conversation II, Rambilas asks Dhaniya what the new teacher looks like, and she describes a person: She looks really intelligent. She wears glasses and always carries a novel. Notice the verbs that describe: is, has got, looks, wears, carries. Act both with interest in your voice, as if you really want to know.

• a.A: What’s the weather like in Ilam today? B: It’s very rainy, and there were storms all night.
• b.A: How’s your grandfather? B: He’s getting better, thank you. He’s resting at home now.
• c.A: Tell me about your new school. B: It’s beautiful. It has a big playground and a garden full of flowers.
• d.A: How are your studies going? B: They’re going well. I’m getting better grades this term.
• e.A: What’s your village like? B: It’s lovely. It’s surrounded by green forest, and you can hear birds all day.

• a.A pressure cooker. This pressure cooker is a must in every kitchen. It cooks rice, dal, beans and meat in a third of the usual time, so it saves gas too. It is a strong steel pot with a lid that locks tight, and a rubber ring inside the lid keeps the steam in. On the lid there is a whistle, a weight that lifts and lets out steam when the pressure is high enough: you count the whistles to know when the food is cooked. There is also a safety valve, which opens if the pressure gets too high, and handles that stay cool. Don’t open the lid until all the steam has gone.
• b.An oven. This electric oven is perfect for baking cakes, cookies and bread, and for roasting vegetables and meat. Inside, it has two shelves, with a heating element at the top for grilling and one at the bottom for baking. On the front there is a glass door with a light, so you can watch your cake rise. The dials let you set the temperature, up to 250 °C, and a timer rings when your food is ready.
• c.An electric iron. This steam iron makes your school uniform look smart in minutes. It has a smooth, flat base plate that heats up, a dial to choose the right heat for cotton, silk or wool, and a small water tank: press the button and steam comes out of the holes in the plate to remove even deep creases. The handle stays cool, and a light shows when it is hot. Always stand it on its heel when you put it down.

There are four relative clauses in the letter:

1. The vase you have gifted me (a contact clause: that is left out, because you is the subject)
2. the vase which my little sister broke last week
3. the best vase that I have ever seen
4. My mother, who loves flowers, arranged roses in the vase (a non-defining clause, between commas: Punam has only one mother)

Two more clauses look similar but are not relative clauses: exactly what I wanted and Can you guess where I have kept it? They don’t describe a noun before them; they are noun clauses, the object of is and of guess. In an exam that asks for relative clauses, underline the four above.

• a.Manju works for a company that sells fridges and washing machines.
• b.The story is about a girl who walks to school across a river every day.
• c.What was the name of the dog that followed us home from the temple?
• d.The police have caught the criminals who robbed the bank in Butwal.
• e.Graham Bell was the man who invented the telephone.
• f.What happened to the painting that used to hang in the hall?
• g.An encyclopedia is a book that gives information on many subjects.
• h.I hate people who throw rubbish on the street.
• i.The Earth seems to be the only planet where life exists (or that can support life).
• j.A detective is a person whose job is to solve crimes (or who finds out the truth about crimes).
• k.Can you tell me the name of the book you were reading on the bus? (a contact clause: that left out)

Other endings are right too, as long as you use who for people, which or that for things, where for places, and don’t repeat the pronoun.

Headline, byline, dateline. Lead: what (Yantrika shown at an online exhibition), who made it, where it comes from. Body: who organized the exhibition and who took part; what the robot can do; its main purpose; a closing line. Past tense, about 100 words.

Nepal’s Yantrika Shown at International Online Robot Exhibition
By Sudip Karki
Kathmandu, 26 April

Yantrika, a human-shaped robot made in Nepal, has been put on display at an international online robot exhibition.

The robot was developed by a team led by Engineer Roshan Pandey at the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). The exhibition, organized by Smart Society of Canada, Business Upside, USA, and IEM America Corporation, showcased the best innovative technologies from America, Canada, Germany, India and the UK.

Yantrika can identify people who are wearing a mask and those who are not. It hands out masks and sanitizers and measures people’s body temperature. Its main objective is to spread awareness among the public about wearing masks and using sanitizers.

Yes, I agree with both. Renewable energy (from the Sun, wind and water) produces almost no greenhouse gases or smoke while it runs, so it reduces emissions and air pollution; cleaner air means fewer people with breathing problems, which improves public health. It also creates jobs: people are needed to build, install and repair solar panels, wind turbines and hydropower plants, often in villages. And its potential is immense: the sunlight that reaches the Earth in about an hour and a half carries as much energy as the whole world uses in a year. Nepal’s rivers alone could produce tens of thousands of megawatts. The challenge is to use it well: to store it for night and dry seasons, and to build without harming rivers and forests.

• a.fleet – iii
• b.inflatable – iv
• c.harness – vii
• d.vane – i
• e.skyscraper – ii
• f.fission – v
• g.bountiful – vi

• endless – finite
• modern – traditional (traditional solar power)
• covered – revealed (JAXA revealed…)
• fragrant – odorless (a colorless and odorless gas)
• bound (not free, tied, controlled) – autonomous (free to act on its own)
• inadequate – bountiful (plentiful, more than enough)

• a.Idea I – iv (solar energy)
• b.Idea II – v (energy through body movement)
• c.Idea III – i (wave energy)
• d.Idea IV – ii (hydrogen energy)
• e.Idea V – vi (Altaeros energy: the flying wind turbine)
• f.Idea VI – iii (energy through the fusion process)

Some answer keys pair them in another order. Check each against the text: Idea II is the knee brace (body movement), Idea IV is hydrogen, Idea VI is fusion.

In March 2015, JAXA turned 1.8 kilowatts of electricity into microwaves and sent them wirelessly to a receiver about 50 meters away, showing that electricity can be sent through the air as microwaves, the key step in beaming power down from space.

We need to wear a device that collects the energy of our movements and converts it into electricity, such as the knee brace whose metal vanes vibrate and make electricity as the wearer walks.

Both take their energy from the wind: wave energy is stored wind energy (the wind makes the waves), and flying wind farms catch the strong, steady winds high above the ground. Both are renewable.

Hydrogen must first be separated from the other elements it is joined to (such as oxygen in water). Then it can be used in fuel cells, which turn it into electricity to power vehicles, aircraft, homes and buildings, producing almost no pollution (only water).

Because they float 1,000 to 2,000 feet above the ground, where the wind is steadier and much stronger than at tower height (five to eight times stronger, the text says). So they produce about double the energy of turbines of the same size on towers.

Because it gives off no pollutants or greenhouse gases, and unlike fission reactors it has no danger of a nuclear meltdown. Its fuel, made from hydrogen, would last almost forever.

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

• Biogas: gas from cow dung and kitchen waste, rotting in a closed tank. Many Nepali families cook on it, and what is left is good manure.
• Micro-hydro: a small stream turns a small turbine and lights a whole village, as in many hill villages of Nepal.
• Geothermal energy: heat from deep inside the Earth, used in Iceland and Kenya; Nepal has hot springs (as at Tatopani) that show heat underground.
• Tidal energy: the rise and fall of the sea, twice a day.
• Solar water heaters and solar cookers, which use the Sun’s heat directly.
• Briquettes made from waste paper, sawdust or forest weeds, burned instead of firewood.

• a.It is an apartment (a flat): a set of rooms for one family on one floor of a bigger building. The picture shows its living room, with a dining area and kitchen.
• b.A house stands on its own, usually with its own land, roof and entrance, and the family often owns it. An apartment is one of many homes in one building: families share the stairs, the lift and the roof, live above and below one another, and often rent from an owner, with a building manager who looks after the building. An apartment is usually smaller and has no garden, but it is often in the middle of a city, close to schools and work.

• a.True (“I love it! When can we move in?”)
• b.True (“This apartment does have a lot more floor space.”)
• c.False (it is a little far from his school and his father’s work)
• d.False (the father only hopes the neighbors aren’t too noisy: no one knows yet)
• e.True (he said he would be back in a few minutes)
• f.False (he hasn’t decided whether he really likes it)

Some answer keys give True for d. But the father says only I hope the neighbors aren’t too noisy: a hope, not a fact, so the statement can’t be true.

• a.The living room: it is huge, much bigger than the one they have now.
• b.He hasn’t decided whether he really likes the apartment that much, so they don’t yet know whether (or when) they will move in.
• c.The kitchen is a little small, and it has few windows, so it won’t get much sunlight. (About the apartment as a whole, the father also says the rent is a little high and it is a little far from school and work.)
• d.The bedrooms, the kitchen, the living room and the closets.
• e.The bathroom, which Tom suddenly needs!

I would prefer a house. In a house we can have our own garden to grow vegetables and flowers, a roof to dry clothes and enjoy the winter sun, and space for our grandparents to live with us. We don’t have to worry about noisy neighbors above us, and we can make changes without asking an owner. In an earthquake, a well-built low house is also easier to get out of. But an apartment has advantages too: it is often in the middle of the city, close to school and work, it is safer when the family is away, and the building manager looks after repairs. For a busy family in Kathmandu without much money, an apartment may be the more practical choice.

a. where b. that (or which, or nothing) c. whom (or who, that, or nothing) d. where e. where f. who (or that) g. whom (or who, that, or nothing) h. who (or that) i. where j. that (or which) k. that (or which, or nothing) l. which
In l, the clause is between commas (there is only one Mt. Everest), so only which is right: never that after a comma.

• a.Are these the keys that (or which) you were looking for?
• b.Unfortunately, we couldn’t attend the wedding that (or which) we were invited to. (Formal: the wedding to which we were invited.)
• c.What is the name of the hotel where your brother works?
• d.The party that (or which) we attended last Saturday wasn’t enjoyable.
• e.What is the name of the boy whose father is a dentist?
• f.Who was the man whom (or who, that) you talked to in the restaurant?
• g.What is the name of the shop where they sell medicine?
• h.Is this the man who donated all his property to a hospital?

In a, b, d and f the relative word is the object, so it can also be left out: Are these the keys you were looking for?

Paragraph 1: what green energy is, and where it comes from. Paragraph 2: its present status, in the world and in Nepal. Paragraph 3: its benefits. Paragraph 4: its challenges. Paragraph 5: a conclusion: what should be done. About 200 words.

Green Energy: Power That Never Runs Out
By Zeenat Khatun

Green energy is energy from natural sources that are renewed all the time: sunlight, wind, flowing water, the heat inside the Earth, and plants and waste. Unlike coal, oil and gas, which took millions of years to form and will one day run out, these sources are perpetual: the Sun will keep shining and rivers will keep flowing.

Around the world, green energy is growing fast. In 2023, about 30 percent of the world’s electricity came from renewable sources, and solar panels are now among the cheapest ways to make electricity. Nepal is lucky: nearly all the electricity it generates comes from hydropower, and solar panels and biogas plants serve thousands of villages.

The benefits are great. Green energy produces almost no smoke or greenhouse gases, so it keeps our air clean and slows climate change. It saves the money a country spends on imported fuel, and it creates jobs.

There are challenges too. The Sun doesn’t shine at night, and rivers run low in the dry season, so energy must be stored, which is costly. Large dams can harm rivers and villages, and the first cost of solar systems is still high for poor families.

Green energy is our best hope for a clean future. With cheaper storage, careful planning and support from the government, Nepal can use its rivers and sunshine to power every home, and even sell clean electricity to its neighbors.

• a.False (it was installed last month)
• b.False (it runs only in daylight)
• c.True
• d.True (about Rs. 8,000 a month)
• e.False (the municipality and a farmers’ cooperative paid together)

• a.which (a non-defining clause after a comma: never that)
• b.who (people, the subject of meet)
• c.whose (his robot)
• d.where (a place, and the clause is complete: they work there)
• e.that (a thing, the object of won)

• a.The robot that hands out masks was built by students.
• b.This is the engineer whom we interviewed yesterday.
• c.Sharmila, whose shot was low and fast, scored the winning goal.
• d.Phewa is a lake where you can take a boat ride.
• e.Mt. Everest, which is 8,849 meters high, attracts climbers from all over the world. (commas: there is only one Everest)

Smoke Alarm Wins Hetauda School Science Fair
By Reshma Thapa
Hetauda, 15 November

A smoke alarm made from a cheap sensor won first prize at a school science fair held in Hetauda on Saturday.

The alarm was built by Lochan Shrestha, a Grade 9 student. It sounds a loud beep when smoke reaches it and costs less than Rs. 1,500 to make. Sixty projects by students of Grades 8 to 10 were displayed at the fair. A solar water heater made from old plastic bottles won second prize.

The mayor, who was the chief guest, gave away the prizes. The school has announced that the fair will now be held every year.

Robots and AI in Our Daily Life
By Nirajan Rai

A few years ago, robots and artificial intelligence (AI) belonged to science fiction. Today they are part of our daily lives, often without our noticing.

When you unlock a phone with your face, ask a voice assistant for the weather, or see videos chosen just for you, AI is at work. Banks use it to spot fraud, hospitals use it to read X-rays, and farmers use phone apps that name a crop disease from a photo. In Nepal, robots have served food in a Kathmandu restaurant, and NAST’s robot Yantrika handed out masks during the pandemic.

These tools save time and lives. They can work day and night without tiring, do dangerous jobs, and bring services to remote villages.

But they also bring problems. Some jobs may disappear. AI can make fake videos and voices that fool people, and it sometimes gives wrong answers with great confidence. Our personal data may be collected without our knowledge.

Robots and AI are here to stay. We should learn how they work, use them with care, check what they tell us, and make laws that protect people. Used wisely, they can make our lives easier and safer.