GIẢI THÍCH CAMBRIDGE IELTS 12 (BẢN MỚI NHẤT)

Passage 3 – Test 1 – Cambridge 12

What’s the purpose of gaining knowledge?

A

‘I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any subject' That was the
founders motto for Cornell University, and it seems an apt characterization of the different
university, also in the USA, where I currently teach philosophy. A student can prepare for a
career in resort management, engineering, interior design, accounting, music, law enforcement,
you name it. But what would the founders of these two institutions have thought of a course
called Arson for Profit’? I kid you not: we have it on the books. Any undergraduates who have
met the academic requirements can sign up for the course in our program in ' fire science ’.

Naturally, the course is intended for prospective arson investigators , who can learn all the tricks
of the trade for detecting whether a fire was deliberately set, discovering who did it, and
establishing a chain of evidence for effective prosecution in a court of law. But wouldn’t this
also be the perfect course for prospective arsonists to sign up for? My point is not to criticize
academic programs in fire science: they are highly welcome as part of the increasing
professionalization of this and many other occupations. However, it’s not unknown for a
firefighter to torch a building. This example suggests how dishonest and illegal behavior, with
the help of higher education, can creep into every aspect of public and business life.

I realized this anew when I was invited to speak before a class in marketing, which is another of
our degree programs. The regular instructor is a colleague who appreciates the kind of ethical
perspective I can bring as a philosopher. There are endless ways I could have approached this
assignment , but I took my cue from the title of the course: 'Principles of Marketing’. It made me
think to ask the students, 'Is marketing principled?’ After all, a subject matter can have principles
in the sense of being codified, having rules, as with football or chess, without being principled in
the sense of being ethical. Many of the students immediately assumed that the answer to my
question about marketing principles was obvious: no. Just look at the ways in which everything
under the sun has been marketed; obviously it need not be done in a principled (=ethical)
fashion.

Written by Ngoc Bach

Website: www.ngocbach.com Page 1
 GIẢI THÍCH CAMBRIDGE IELTS 12 (BẢN MỚI NHẤT)

Is that obvious? I made the suggestion, which may sound downright crazy in the light of the
evidence, that perhaps marketing is by definition principled. My inspiration for this judgement is
the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who argued that any body of knowledge consists of an end (or
purpose) and a means.

Let us apply both the terms 'means' and ‘end' to marketing. The students have signed up for a
course in order to learn how to market effectively. But to what end? There seem to be two main
attitudes toward that question. One is that the answer is obvious: the purpose of marketing is to
sell things and to make money. The other attitude is that the purpose of marketing is irrelevant:
each person comes to the program and course with his or her own plans, and these need not even
concern the acquisition of marketing expertise as such. My proposal, which I believe would also
be Kant's, is that neither of these attitudes captures the significance of the end to the means for
marketing. A field of knowledge or a professional endeavor is defined by both the means and the
end;hence both deserve scrutiny. Students need to study both how to achieve X, and also what X
is.

It is at this point that ‘Arson for Profit’ becomes supremely relevant . That course is presumably
all about means: how to detect and prosecute criminal activity. It is therefore assumed that the
end is good in an ethical sense. When I ask fire science students to articulate the end, or purpose,
of their field, they eventually generalize to something like, ‘The safety and welfare of society,’
which seems right. As we have seen, someone could use the very same knowledge of means to
achieve a much less noble end, such as personal profit via destructive, dangerous, reckless
activity. But we would not call that firefighting. We have a separate word for it: arson. Similarly,
if you employed the ‘principles of marketing’ in an unprincipled way, you would not be doing
marketing. We have another term for it: fraud. Kant gives the example of a doctor and a
poisoner, who use the identical knowledge to achieve their divergent ends. We would say that
one is practicing medicine, the other, murder.

Questions 27-32

(Note: You should do these questions after questions 33 – 40 to get more familiar with the
passage)

Reading Passage 3 has six sections, A-F.

Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.
Written by Ngoc Bach
Website: www.ngocbach.com Page 2
 GIẢI THÍCH CAMBRIDGE IELTS 12 (BẢN MỚI NHẤT)

List of headings
i Courses that require a high level of commitment
ii A course title with two meanings
iii The equal importance of two key issues
iv Applying a theory in an unexpected context
v The financial benefits of studying
vi A surprising course title
vii Different names for different outcomes
viii The possibility of attracting the wrong kind of student

27. Section A

In section A, the author mentions the idea of the founding of a special institution, its possible
majors and possible titles for a wide variety of courses. Therefore, we should pay attention to
headings related to those contents – they are ii, vi and vii (headings about the title, there is no
heading about the other contents). In section A, the author writes “But what would the founders
of these two institutions have thought of a course called Arson for Profit’?”. The author adds: “I
kid you not…” to explain that this course title is not a joke. We might not expect this course to
exist, but it does exist. This is only one unexpected title, so it cannot be “vii” (different names)
and the author does not mention anything related to its meanings, so it cannot be ii (with two
meanings). The answer is vi.

 Answer: vi

28. Section B

Section B is about targeting students of the course because of the opening: “the course is
intended for prospective arson investigators”. Then the author asks aquestion: “But wouldn’t this
also be the perfect course for prospective arsonists to sign up for?” in order to point out the
possibility of attracting the wrong kind of student. The course might attract students interested in
starting fires, not fighting fires. Therfore, the answer is viii.

 Answer: viii.

29. Section C

Section C tells us about the author and his story about the title of the course. There are 2
remainingheadingsthat could be related to a title – ii and vii. Since, in this section, the author
only mentions one confusing title that could be understood by his students in two different

Written by Ngoc Bach

Website: www.ngocbach.com Page 3
 GIẢI THÍCH CAMBRIDGE IELTS 12 (BẢN MỚI NHẤT)

ways,because of the the two meanings of ‘principles’, thereforethe answer has to be “a course
title with two meanings”. The answer is ii.

 Answer: ii

30. Section D

Section D is a very short paragraph. You can look at all the headings and cross out the ones you
know are wrong for sure. For example, in section D the author does not mention any course or
commitment, so the heading cannot be i – “Courses that require a high level of commitment”. Do
the same with other headings, you can find out that only heading iv – “Applying a theory in an
unexpected context” still remains. The theory referred to is the idea of the philospher Kant that
any body of knowledge is principled. The author writesthat this sounds“downright crazy in the
light of the evidence”, which has the same meaning as “an unexpected context”when applied to
an unethical practice like marketing. The answer is iv.

 Answer: iv.

31. Section E

In this section, the author mentions two terms in marketing, means and ends and, in conclusion,
he supposes that “A field of knowledge or a professional endeavor is defined by both the means
and the end;hence both deserve scrutiny”, which means that bothterms are equally important.
Therefore, the answer is “the equal importance of two key issues” (iii)“how to achieve X and
what X is”.

 Answer: iii

32. Section F

In this section, the author gives the example of a doctor and a murderer. Both maylearn the same
body of knowledge, but they apply that knowledge for different purposes/ends. We give different
names: we say that the doctor is practicing medicine and we say that the other is practicing
murder. The authordoes not mention anything related to “a high level of commitment” (heading
i) and “financial benefits” (heading v). Therefore, the most accurate heading for this section is
“Different names for different outcomes” (vii). The doctor and the murderer use “identical
knowledge to achieve their divergent ends”.

Different = divergent
Outcomes = ends
 Answer: vii.

Written by Ngoc Bach

Website: www.ngocbach.com Page 4
 GIẢI THÍCH CAMBRIDGE IELTS 12 (BẢN MỚI NHẤT)

Question 33-36

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet.

The ‘Arson for Profit’ course

This is a university course intended for students who are undergraduates and who are
studying 33____ The expectation is that they will become 34 ____ specialising in arson. The
course will help them to detect cases of arson and find 35 ____ of criminal intent, leading to
successful 36 ____ in the courts.

This passage is about “The arson for profit” course, so we have to pay attention to sectionsA,
Band the last section, all of which mention this course.

33. […] who are studying ____

In the last sentence of the first section, the author writes: “Any undergraduates who have met the
academic requirements can sign up for the course in our program in ' fire science ’.” Therefore,
students who can sign up for the course are undergraduates and ones who are studying “fire
science”. The answer is “fire science” (the question requires no more than two words so this is
acceptable).

 Answer: fire science.

34. […] will become ____

The first sentence of the second sectionstates: “Naturally, the course is intended for prospective
arson investigators”. We can see expectation = prospective, which means they are studying to be
arson investigators in the future (arson as an adjective = specialising in arson – who specialize in
arson). The answer is investigators.

• Expectation = prospective
 Answer: investigators.

35. […] find ____ of criminal intent

“The course will help them” means students can learn from the course, so we pay attention to
this reference in section B: “who can learn all the tricks of the trade for detecting whether a fire
was deliberately set, discovering who did it, and establishing a chain of evidence for effective
prosecution in a court of law.” “A fire was deliberately set” can be considered as an example of
criminal intent-the arsonist deliberately intended to start a fire. Then the course can help them to

Written by Ngoc Bach

Website: www.ngocbach.com Page 5
 GIẢI THÍCH CAMBRIDGE IELTS 12 (BẢN MỚI NHẤT)

detect whether it is deliberate or not, who did it and find a chain of evidence. Therefore, the
answer is “evidence”.

Find = detect

 Answer: evidence.

36. […] leading to successful ____ in the courts.

The word requiredis right after an adjective and in front of an adverb of place, so it has to a noun.
In section B, the author mentions the court in this phrase:“establishing a chain of evidence for
effective prosecution in a court of law”. We can consider “effective” as “successful”,and “in a
court of law” as “in the courts”. Therefore, the answer is “prosecution”.

• Effective = successful
 Answer: prosecution.

Question 37 – 40.

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 37-40 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.

37. It is difficult to attract students onto courses that do not focus on a career.

If this statement is true, you have to find a sentence in the text expressing the same idea. If this
statement is false, you have to point out what is wrong with it and find a sentence in the passage
given to correct it. However, we cannot find any reference like that. In the passage, there
isnosentence telling us about difficulties in attracting students onto such courses. Therefore, the
answer is Not given.

 Answer: Not given.

38. The ‘Arson for Profit’ course would be useful for people intending to set fire to
buildings.

Written by Ngoc Bach

Website: www.ngocbach.com Page 6
 GIẢI THÍCH CAMBRIDGE IELTS 12 (BẢN MỚI NHẤT)

In sectionF, the author once again mentions the “Arson for Profit” course and writes: “As we
have seen, someone could use the very same knowledge of means to achieve a much less noble
end, such as personal profit via destructive, dangerous, reckless activity”. So, “use the very same
knowledge” means they can use what they have learnedfrom this course (= this course would be
useful for them). And “destructive, dangerous, reckless activity” can include “set fire to
buildings.” Therefore, the answer is Yes.

 Answer: Yes.

39. Fire science courses are too academic to help people to be good at the job of firefighting.

In section B, the author relates the knowledge learned on the course to its usefulness for students
who want to become firefighters. They will be qualified to do the job in a professional and
expert way: “programs in fire science: they are highly welcome as part of the increasing
professionalization of this and many other occupations”. The courses will help students.

To be good at the job of = professionalization

Therefore, the answer is No.

 Answer: No.

40. The writer’s fire science students provided a detailed definition of the purpose of their
studies.

In section F, the author asks the students about purpose of the course, “When I ask fire science
students to articulate the end, or purpose, of their field, they eventually generalize to something
like, ‘The safety and welfare of society,’ which seems right.” They only “generalize”, which
means “to make a general statement or form a general opinion”.Their opinion is only general, not
detailed or particularly clear. Therefore, the answer is No.

Provide a detailed definition of = to articulate

 Answer: No.

The Words in the question Words in the text Meaning

question
32 different divergent Developing or moving in different
directions
32 outcomes ends Results of an action or event
34 expectation prospective Expect or believe something will
happen
35 find detect Discover something which is

Written by Ngoc Bach

Website: www.ngocbach.com Page 7
 GIẢI THÍCH CAMBRIDGE IELTS 12 (BẢN MỚI NHẤT)

difficult to see, hear…..

36 successful effective To bring the results you want
39 to be good at the job of professionalization The process of making people more
expert at the job that they do
40 provide a detailed articulate To express clearly in words your
definition of thoughts or feelings about something

Written by Ngoc Bach

Website: www.ngocbach.com Page 8