6V Exam Training Cool Running

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Why do you do Exam Training?

1. to avoid making stupid mistakes on your Final Exam
2. because practice makes perfect
3. because applying strategies will pay off
4. because of A, B and C

Cool Running

VWO 2010 - II

Tekst 7

Alquin book p. 84

Paragraph 1 & 2

1. IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME before the challenge of Oscar

Pistorius would run headlong into our cherished notions of what’s equal,

what’s fair and what’s the difference between the two.

2. Democracy presumes that we’re all created equal; competition proves we

are not, or else every race would end in a tie. We talk about a level playing field because it’s the least we can do in the face of nature’s injustice. Some people are born strong or stretchy, or with a tungsten will. 

What is suggested in paragraph 2 about democracy? 

1. IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME before the challenge of Oscar

Pistorius would run headlong into our cherished notions of what’s equal,

what’s fair and what’s the difference between the two.

2. Democracy presumes that we’re all created equal; competition proves we

are not, or else every race would end in a tie. We talk about a level playing field because it’s the least we can do in the face of nature’s injustice. Some people are born strong or stretchy, or with a tungsten will. 

What is suggested in paragraph 2 about democracy?

1. It guarantees that all people have the same opportunities.
2. It starts from a false but indispensable premise about mankind.
3. Though it is a useful idea for politics it cannot be applied to sports.
4. With the advance of technology, it is fast becoming a problematic concept.

Paragraph 3

We talk about a level playing field because it’s the least we can do in the

face of nature’s injustice. Some people are born strong or stretchy, or with a

tungsten will.

3 ..........., Pistorius’ advantage comes from what nature left out and technology replaced: his body ends at the knees, and from there to the ground it’s a moral puzzle. Born in South Africa without major bones in his legs and feet, he had his lower legs amputated before he was a year old. As he grew up, so did the science of prosthetics. Now 21, Pistorius runs on carbon-fiber

blades known as Cheetahs. He won gold in the 200 m at the Athens Paralympics, breaking 22 sec.; but now his eye is on the Olympics. It was up to the world body that governs track and

field, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), to determine whether using Cheetahs is cheating.

Which of the following fits the gap in paragraph 3?

1. By the way
2. For example
3. However
4. Therefore

Paragraph 4

A runner’s stride is not perfectly efficient. Ankles waste energy – much

more, it turns out, than Pistorious’ Jshaped blades. He can run just as fast

using less oxygen than his competitors (one describes the sound Pistorious

makes as like being chased by a giant pair of scissors). On Jan. 14, following

the findings of the researcher who evaluated him, the IAAF disqualified

Pistorius from Olympic competition. He is expected to appeal, arguing that

 ................. is not that simple. No matter what happens next, Pistorius is changing the nature of the games we play. 

Which of the following fits the gap in paragraph 4?

1. the definition of advantage
2. the exertion his handicap requires
3. the story of his background

Which of the following characterises paragraph 5?

Our intuition tells us there’s a difference between innate advantages

and acquired ones. A swimmer born with webbed hands might have an

edge, but a swimmer who had skin grafts to turn feet into flippers would

pose a problem. Elite sport is unkind to the human body; high school

linemen bulk up to an extent that may help the team but wreck their knees. What about the tall girl who wants her doctor to prescribe human growth hormone because her coach said three more inches of height would guarantee her that volleyball scholarship: unfair, or just unwise? Where exactly is the boundary between dedication and deformity?

6 Imagine if Pistorius’ blades made

him exactly as biomechanically

efficient as a normal runner. What

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should be the baseline: Normal for the

average man? Or for the average

Olympian? Cyclist Lance Armstrong

was born with a heart and lungs that

can make a mountain feel flat; he also

trained harder than anyone on the

planet. Where’s the unfair advantage?

George Eyser’s wooden leg didn’t stop

him from winning six Olympic

gymnastics medals, including in the

parallel bars. But that was 1904; legs

have improved since then. 

Which of the following characterises paragraph 5?

1. It advocates that the best guideline on fairness in sports is people’s gut feelings.
2. It demonstrates that a sound rule is not suddenly invalidated by a single exception.
3. It gives examples of cases that cast doubt on a seemingly straightforward principle
4. It illustrates that logical thinking can determine what is fair and unfair in sports.

Which conclusion does paragraph 7 lead up to?

The questions are worth asking because in them lies not just the future

of our sports but of ourselves. Why should nature be allowed to play

favorites but not parents? Science will  soon deliver unto us all sorts of novel

ways of redesigning our offspring or re-engineering ourselves that test what

we mean by human. The fight over doping in baseball will seem quaint

one day when players can dope not with drugs but with genes. Already

there is black-market interest in therapies developed to treat muscular

dystrophy but which could potentially be used to build superstrong athletes.  

Which conclusion does paragraph 7 lead up to?

1. Doping and new medical therapies could mean the end of competitive sports.
2. Future developments might make the issue of unfair competition seem irrelevant
3. Genetic enhancement may become so sophisticated that it leaves no detectable trace in a sportsman.
4. Technology may become indispensable for the continuity of excellence in sports.

Welke twee redenen voor de prestaties van Pistorius geeft de schrijfster in haar eindoordeel?

We honor heroes – in sports as in life – for grace and guts as well as natural gifts. When something comes easily, it’s easy not to work at it, like the bright kid who coasts through

class: talent taps persistence on the  shoulder, says, “You’re not needed here”. But put the two together, Tiger Woods’ easy power and ferocious discipline – and he makes history.

There’s some sweet irony in the fact that before Pistorius came along, there was no need for rules that now ban him. Only when the disabled runner challenged the able-bodied ones did

officials institute a rule against springs and wheels and any artificial aids to running. That’s a testimony to technology, but it is also a tribute to the sheer nerve and fierce will that got

him to the starting line in the first place. ■

Welke twee redenen voor de prestaties van Pistorius geeft de schrijfster in haar eindoordeel?

We honor heroes – in sports as in life – for grace and guts as well as natural gifts. When something comes easily, it’s easy not to work at it, like the bright kid who coasts through

class: talent taps persistence on the  shoulder, says, “You’re not needed here”. But put the two together, Tiger Woods’ easy power and ferocious discipline – and he makes history.

There’s some sweet irony in the fact that before Pistorius came along, there was no need for rules that now ban him. Only when the disabled runner challenged the able-bodied ones did

officials institute a rule against springs and wheels and any artificial aids to running. That’s a testimony to technology, but it is also a tribute to the sheer nerve and fierce will that got

him to the starting line in the first place. ■

Welke twee redenen voor de prestaties van Pistorius geeft de schrijfster in haar eindoordeel?