TEXT 2

Reading habits among children have changed significantly over the last decade. Many students now spend more time on screens than with printed books. While digital reading platforms can offer convenience and interactive features, they may also reduce concentration and deep comprehension.

Teachers and parents are encouraged to promote balanced reading habits by combining traditional books with digital resources. Creating reading routines at home and in school can help children develop stronger vocabulary, imagination, and critical thinking.

Encouraging reading should not be seen as an obligation alone, but as an opportunity for discovery and pleasure. When students associate reading with positive experiences, they are more likely to become lifelong readers.

Based on the text below, answer the question.

TEXT III

The English schools looking to dispel ‘doom and gloom' around Al

Charles Darwin chatting with students about evolution, primary school pupils seeing their writing transformed into images, Luton reimagined as a cool automobile - artificial intelligence is invading schools across England in surprising ways.

While Bridget Philipson, the education secretary, in January called for a “digital revolution” involving Al in schools, it has already begun in places such as Willowdown primary school in Bridgwater, Somerset.

Matt Cave, Willowdown's head teacher, said his pupils improve their descriptive writing by feeding their work into an Al client to generate images.

“All of a sudden they've got all these pictures from different people’s descriptions, and they can then discuss with their classmates whether that was the image they expected to be in the reader’s head,” Cave said.

“It was really stimulating and thought-provoking for them to have a different audience.” The results, according to Cave, have been "brilliant” and a contrast to the “doom and gloom” he had heard from worried school leaders.

“I wouldn't want anyone to think we weren't aware of the potential hazards - we emphasise that to the children continually. But it's going to be a tool that they are going to need to use all their lives,” Cave said.

Marina Wyatt, head of science for key stage 3 at Furze Platt senior school in Maidenhead, said that she has found teacher-led use of Al useful for engaging students in discussions, including with a virtual Charles Darwin.

In the prompt we tell it to respond as Charles Darwin, and stay in the role. And it works. It came up with some brilliant stuff.

Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/mar/06/theenglish-schools-looking-to-dispel-doom-and-gloom-around-ai

Based on the text below, answer the question.

TEXT II

Impact over income: a striking number of gen Zers are becoming teachers

Joseph Curatolo was studying architecture four years ago when he took a summer job, teaching music to middle school students. When he told them he might leave the program to focus on his studies, he said, they burst into tears.

“The fact that I had such an impact on these kids led me to reconsider my career,” said Curatolo, 22. He is now a seventh-and eighth-grade social studies teacher, based in New York City.

Amid a nationwide decline of teaching, Curatolo is not alone: a striking number of gen Z graduates are entering the classroom, despite longstanding concerns over pay and conditions.

Teach For America (TFA), a non-profit education organization, experienced a near 43% increase in its teaching fellows - which TFA refers to as corp members - over the past three years. A generation whose formative years were spent in isolation during the Covid-19 lockdown is “craving human connection and experiences that feel real’, suggested Whitney Petersmeyer, TFA's chief growth and program officer.

Gen Z is “responding to the opportunity for purpose and responsibility at a time where many entry jobs feel uncertain or disconnected from impact’, she added. During periods of economic uncertainty and turbulence, college graduates have been known to turn to industries fields with major shortages, like education.

This generation came of age “in a rapidly changing world,” Randi Weingarten, president of American Teachers Federation, said in a statement, “and that lived experience helps them relate to students in powerful ways.” New arrivals in the classroom are bringing a new perspective, according to Weingarten. “They're reimagining how we teach, bringing new approaches to technology and social-emotional learning.”

Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/janf02/gen-z-teachers-profession

Based on the text below, answer the question.

TEXT I

Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic 

It is not likely to be a hefty volume because the vast majority of the material has been lost in the mists of time. But the remnants of a language spoken in parts of the UK and Ireland 2,000 years ago are being collected for what is being billed as the first complete dictionary of ancient Celtic.

Sources for the dictionary will range from Julius Caesar's account of his conquest of parts of northern Europe to ancient memorial stones.

Dr Simon Rodway, a senior lecturer in the department of Welsh and Celtic studies at Aberystwyth, said it was exciting to be involved in compiling the first dictionary of its kind.

He said: “These disparate sources have never before been brought together in a way that offers such an insight into the nature of Celtic languages spoken in these islands at the dawn of the historical period.

“The picture of the linguistic landscape of Britain and Ireland will be of interest not only to linguists but to historians, archaeologists and archaeogeneticists.”

The team compiling the dictionary say that while modern Celtic languages are often different from each other, similarities can be seen between words.

Rodway said: “With the exception of a very small number of inscriptions from Roman Britain in Celtic languages, we're dependent on documents that are written either in Latin or Greek, but which contain names of places, ethnic groups or individuals that we can say are Celtic.

“People have studied, place names before and a few inscriptions but we're going to try and get everything together and see what patterns emerge.”

He said the bulk of the material would come from the Roman period in Britain, from the first to the fourth centuries AD, and from the middle of the second century onwards in Ireland. Another source is inscriptions on stones in places such as Cornwall and Ireland that use the Ogham alphabet, a system of straight lines designed to be carved on to stone, metal, bone or wood.

Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/dec/08/linguists-start-compiling-first-ever-complete-dictionary-of-ancient-celtic

Instruction: Refer to Text II to answer the question.

TEXT II 

Tiger Eyes

Available on: https://electricliterature.com/7-books-about-

coming-of-age-in-a-small-town/. Accessed on: December 17 th 2025.  

TV for dogs booms but are they watching?

By David Silverberg

(Frolicking = playing energetically

Squishy = soft when pressed)

(Available at: www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq59leg3gp5o – text specially adapted for this test).