By Ajarn Helen Jandamit
Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post
University Tips is here to help you prepare for the English exams and tests that are coming your way. It gives you practise answering questions similar to those you may have at school and also on the University Entrance Examination.
Read the following story by Duangphat Sitthipat from the Bangkok Post. Then, answer the questions that follow.
A Thai team is proving hard to beat in a football competition played by robots.
SG-1, a team of three boys from Saint Gabriel’s College, recently won the WRO GEN II Football category of World Robot Olympiad (WRO). The annual sports competition, sponsored by Lego, was held in Sochi, Russia, last October.
The football competition is open for students aged 10 to 19. In the competition, two teams of robots have a 10-minute football match. In each team, there is a kicker and a goalkeeper made from Lego.
Kanokphan Premprabha, 17, and brothers Jakpat Mingmongkolmitr, 15, and Patchakorn Mingmongkolmitr, 14, made SG-1.
“Our robots are built to think like people,” Kanokphan said. “Before they kick the ball, they have to be sure where it is going.”
All of the team players are members of the Robot Club, which was established 13 years ago as part of Saint Gabriel’s College extra-curricular activities. The club currently has 12 members.
Kanokphan joined the club after his brother introduced him to it. Jakpat signed up for the club because he liked computer programming. His younger brother Patchakorn also wanted to join the club.
The Robot Club is supervised by Wittayayut Seethong, head teacher of information technology at the school. When the club was founded, Wittayayut was solely responsible for teaching the basics of robotics to students. Now senior students teach the others.
Kanokphan is the leader of SG-1 and responsible for designing the robots, while Jakpat and Patchakorn are responsible for programming them.
In the two weeks leading up the competition, the team members spent every day, from early morning until after midnight, at their club room practising for the competition. Even though the robots can be programmed in a day, it took much longer to get them to the level the students were happy with.
“There were times when the design and the programming for the robots didn’t match, so we had to talk a lot about how to fix that,” Kanokphan said.
Some 367 teams from 48 countries took part in all of the competition. Fifty-eight teams participated in WRO GEN II Football, with five teams coming from Thailand. Two of the teams for the tournament came from Saint Gabriel’s College, two came from Yothinburana School, and one was from Assumption College.
One thing the boys have in common is that they are keen to study engineering. When they were asked if they would go into robotics, they all agreed that this would be unlikely.
“If Thailand had some kind of organisation to support it, I might be interested,” Kanokphan said. “But at the moment there’s no future in this.”
In total, Thailand brought home seven awards from the 2014 WRO. The 2015 WRO will be held in Doha, Qatar.
Exercises
Section 1
Read the story and answer the following multiple-choice questions.
1. What does WRO stand for?
a. World Rescue Organisation.
b. Work Request Online.
c. World Robot Olympiad.
2. Where was the WRO held in 2014?
a. In Doha, Qatar
b. In Sochi, Russia.
c. In Saint Gabriel’s College.
3. How many students does the Robot Club at Saint Gabriel’s College have?
a. 13.
b. 12.
c. 48.
4. Which of the following people is not in SG-1?
a. Jakpat Mingmongkolmitr.
b. Patchakorn Mingmongkolmitr.
c. Wittayayut Seethong.
5. As part of SG-1, what is Patchakorn responsible for?
a. Designing the robots.
b. Programming the robots.
c. Teaching the basics of robotics to students.
6. What subject are the boys in SG-1 keen to study?
a. Engineering.
b. Robotics.
c. Computer programming.
7. How many teams participated in WRO GEN II Football in 2014?
a. 58.
b. 367.
c. 376.
8. Of the five Thai teams who took part in the competition, how many came from Yothinburana School?
a. Two.
b. Five.
c. Seven.
Section 2
Read the story and decide whether the following statements are true or false.
9. Kanokphan and Jakpat are brothers.
………………..
10. Teams from Thailand brought home seven awards from WRO this year.
………………..
11. The 2014 WRO was held in Doha.
………………..
12. Wittayayut Seethong is the head teacher of information technology at Assumption College.
………………..
Section 3
Fill in the blanks in the following passage with the correct words from the choices given.
…..13….. their mutual affinity for robots, each boy’s path to the club differed slightly. Kanokphan joined the club …..14….. his brother Jakpat introduced him to it. Jakpat signed up for the club due to a strong passion …..15….. computer programming, …..16….. influenced his younger brother Patchakorn, …..17….. liked playing with Lego, to join the club.
13.
a. Because
b. However
c. Despite
14.
a. while
b. after
c. afterward
15.
a. for
b. from
c. on
16.
a. who
b. which
c. that
17.
a. that
b. which
c. who
Section 4
Read the following sentences. Then, underline one grammatically correct word in each from the choices given.
18. She is keen to/on/for study information technology.
19. Two of the teams came at/from/on Saint Gabriel’s College.
20. The boy asked his sister if she would like to go inside/into/of robotics.
Section 5
Write down the noun forms of the following words used in the story.
21. introduced ………………………
22. interested ………………………
23. happy ………………………
24. participated ………………………
Vocabulary
- sponsor (v): to pay the costs of a particular event, programme, etc. as a way of advertising
extra-curricular (adj): not part of the usually course of work or studies at a school or university
basics (n): the most important and necessary facts, skills, ideas, etc. from which other things develop
robotics (n): the science of designing and operating robots
programme (v): to give a machine instructions to do a particular task
