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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Viewpoints ID: #60297 Medium Headlines, Homework and the Province

Read the following editorial from a website.

Social media lets teenagers follow political news and argue about it in ways no earlier generation could. Yet the apps are popular for a simple reason: they learn what each user already enjoys and serve up more of it, whether that means cat videos, a best friend’s photos or one side of a political fight. A feed is designed as a comfortable place to linger, not a window onto views we might reject. We believe the province should respond by making news literacy a required part of high school, and we think it should do so with care.

Pia Harker, who heads social studies at a Regina secondary school, says her students rarely meet an opposing argument online unless a teacher puts one in front of them. She wants a required half-credit in grade ten on how news is made, how a claim can be traced to its source and how an app decides what to show. Arun Byrne, a school trustee, argues that the timetable is already full and that a new course would push out an elective students chose themselves. He would rather fold the lessons into existing English and civics classes, with two days of teacher training each year.

Zoe Paget, editor of a community newspaper, points out that anyone can now publish, which is healthy, but she says voices that are wrong or fiercely partisan often travel furthest because they provoke. She offers newsroom visits so students can watch a story being checked before it runs. Cai Norris, a parent who sits on a civil-liberties board, worries that such a course could slip into telling students which outlets to trust. He says he will support it only if the lessons teach methods, such as checking who funds a source, and never hand out a list of approved media.

We back Harker’s call for a stand-alone course, because a unit squeezed into English class tends to vanish once exam season arrives. Byrne’s concern about the timetable is fair, so in our view the half-credit should replace an existing requirement rather than add hours. Norris is right that the course must teach questions, not answers, and the curriculum should say so in its first line. Paget’s newsroom visits belong in every school’s plan. A democracy needs citizens who hear more than their own opinions played back to them, and our schools are the one place every future voter passes through.

Using the drop-down menu (▾), choose the best option according to the information given on the website.

This editorial is mainly about 1.
.

Who most clearly doubts that the school day has room for a separate course? 2.
.

Pia Harker’s view would most likely be supported by 3.
.

What outcome does Cai Norris’s condition call for? 4.
.

The editorial’s main purpose is to 5.
.

The following is a comment by a visitor to the website page. Complete the comment by choosing the best option to fill in each blank.

Our son, a grade eleven student, told me last week with total confidence that a cure for colds had been hidden by drug companies, because three videos in a row said so. Pia Harker’s plan for 6.
 would have reached him in time, and I wish it already existed. The newspaper editor makes a sharp point when she says wrong or partisan voices travel furthest because 7.
. That explains a great deal about my son’s phone, and so does the reminder that apps 8.
, which the editorial gives in its opening paragraph. Zoe Paget’s generous offer of 9.
 deserves a quick yes from our school council before June. The editorial also says that a unit squeezed into English class tends to 10.
, and the same fate met our health lessons.

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