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Writing Section Directions

This section measures your ability to use writing to communicate in an academic environment. There will be two writing tasks.

For the first writing task, you will read a passage, listen to a lecture, and then answer a question based on what you have read and heard. For the second writing task, you will answer a question based on your own knowledge and experience.

Now listen to the directions for the first writing task.

(Click on Continue at any time to dismiss these directions.)

Writing Based on Reading and Listening Directions

For this task, you will read a passage about an academic topic. A clock at the top of the screen will show how much time you have to read. You may take notes on the passage while you read. The passage will then be removed and you will listen to a lecture about the same topic. While you listen, you may also take notes. You will be able to see the reading passage again when it is time for you to write. You may use your notes to help you answer the question.

You will have 20 minutes to write a response to a question that asks you about the relationship between the lecture you heard and the reading passage. Try to answer the question as completely as possible using information from the reading passage and the lecture. The question does not ask you to express your personal opinion. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words.

Your response will be judged on the quality of your writing and on the completeness and accuracy of the content.

Now you will see the reading passage for 3 minutes. Remember that it will be available to you again when you write. Immediately after the reading time ends, the lecture will begin, so keep your headset on until the lecture is over.

(Click on Continue at any time to dismiss these directions.)

Directions: Give yourself 3 minutes to read the passage.

People have dreamed of spaceflight for many centuries. But while astronauts began to travel in space in 1961, private individuals did not have a chance to do so until the first space tourist, Dennis Tito, went aboard the International Space Station for a week in 2001. Over the next eight years, six more space tourists traveled to the space station aboard Russian spacecraft, paying an enormous amount of money–two hundred million dollars for one trip.

What about the rest of us? Many companies are currently working on means to get tourists into space much more cheaply. For example, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are attempting to create vehicles to launch people into suborbital flights. The spacecraft will travel up and out of the atmosphere, give the passengers several minutes of time in space, and then return to Earth. Other companies like SpaceX and Boeing are creating vehicles that can send people into orbit and possibly to destinations beyond, like the moon or Mars.

There are also space hotel companies working on their projects. The ones currently being planned would orbit the Earth and allow tourists to stay for up to two weeks in private rooms. These trips would still cost millions of dollars, but the companies believe prices will come down as the demand for space tourism rises.

Perhaps there will be space travel cheap enough for normal people to leave the Earth on vacation in the future. SpaceX believes their reusable rockets will eventually make the cost of launching a human into orbit no more than a first-class airplane ticket, which wouldn’t be a bad price to do something as unique as travel in space. In addition, hotels could be built on the moon, and since it’s only a three-day trip from Earth, a short vacation to the lunar surface could someday become a possibility for tourists.

Remaining time:

Now listen to part of a lecture on the topic you just read about.

Question 1.

People have dreamed of spaceflight for many centuries. But while astronauts began to travel in space in 1961, private individuals did not have a chance to do so until the first space tourist, Dennis Tito, went aboard the International Space Station for a week in 2001. Over the next eight years, six more space tourists traveled to the space station aboard Russian spacecraft, paying an enormous amount of money–two hundred million dollars for one trip.

What about the rest of us? Many companies are currently working on means to get tourists into space much more cheaply. For example, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are attempting to create vehicles to launch people into suborbital flights. The spacecraft will travel up and out of the atmosphere, give the passengers several minutes of time in space, and then return to Earth. Other companies like SpaceX and Boeing are creating vehicles that can send people into orbit and possibly to destinations beyond, like the moon or Mars.

There are also space hotel companies working on their projects. The ones currently being planned would orbit the Earth and allow tourists to stay for up to two weeks in private rooms. These trips would still cost millions of dollars, but the companies believe prices will come down as the demand for space tourism rises.

Perhaps there will be space travel cheap enough for normal people to leave the Earth on vacation in the future. SpaceX believes their reusable rockets will eventually make the cost of launching a human into orbit no more than a first-class airplane ticket, which wouldn’t be a bad price to do something as unique as travel in space. In addition, hotels could be built on the moon, and since it’s only a three-day trip from Earth, a short vacation to the lunar surface could someday become a possibility for tourists.

Remaining time:

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Question 2.

Directions: Read the question below. Give yourself 30 minutes to plan, write, and revise your essay. Typically, an effective response will contain a minimum of 300 words.

Question: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

Schools should have metal detectors and security screens at their entrances to prevent violent or criminal actions from being carried out.

Remaining time:

Word Count: 0