DIRECTORATE FOR QUALITY AND STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
Department of Curriculum Management
Educational Assessment Unit
LEVEL
7-8
Annual Examinations for Secondary Schools 2016
FORM 2
ENGLISH
COMPREHENSION TEXT
Read the following text and then answer the questions on the language paper.
A Japanese tourist recently died after slipping down the stairs at India's Taj Mahal
monument. An eyewitness said that the tourist fell while taking a selfie at the Taj Mahal's
Royal Gate.
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Police said the tourist lost consciousness immediately after the fall and succumbed to head
injuries in hospital. The Taj Mahal, a 17th Century mausoleum built by Mughal emperor
Shah Jahan after his wife's death, attracts about 12,000 visitors a day.
A tourist police officer said that the Japanese tourist had been with three other people when
the incident occurred. One of his colleagues fractured his leg, after both fell from the
staircase of the monument in the afternoon, police said. The Japanese embassy has been
informed about the death, and an investigation is being conducted into the incident.
There have been several accidents and deaths linked to selfies in recent years. In May of last
year, a 21-year-old woman survived an attack by a bear after posing for a selfie outside its
cage in a zoo. There have also been several cases of children being electrocuted while taking
selfies on top of railway carriages in Russia. In August, a man in Spain was gored to death by
a bull while taking a selfie at the annual bull running festival in the town of Villaseca de la
Sagra.
Earlier this year, the Russian government reportedly launched a campaign to make young
people think twice before snapping selfies in risky situations. The Safe Selfie campaign in
Russia was a response to a spate of incidents in which youngsters were seriously injured, or
in some cases killed, while trying to take pictures of themselves. The campaign's motto is:
"Even a million 'likes' on social media are not worth your life and well-being."
An illustrated booklet has been issued warning people about dangerous selfie scenarios,
including snapping a photo while halfway up an electricity pylon, standing in front of an
oncoming train, or while in the company of a wild animal. Officials from the Ministry of the
Interior also said that police officers will hold selfie-safety lessons at schools.
"Today technical advances do not stand still, but with all the advantages there are new
challenges and threats," ministry official Yelena Alekseyeva told reporters during the
campaign's launch on Tuesday. "Our booklet reminds you of how to take a safe selfie, so it is
not the last one you will ever take."
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Although the warnings in the Russian booklet will hopefully save a few lives, concern about
selfies has not been limited to the serious risks that some persons run when taking photos of
themselves. In an article in the British newspaper The Guardian, Jonathan Freedland argues
that the selfie is self-centred in the most literal sense and wittily remarks that not for nothing
is the word just a breath – a mere "sh" – away from selfish.
English – Comprehension Text – Form 2 Secondary – L7 to L8 – 2016
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He believes that its selfishness is of
the
most
superficial
kind.
Freedland writes that the selfie is
not just about me, me, me, but how
I look, look, look. It invites
judgment based on appearance
alone. You post a picture of
yourself and wait for the verdict,
your self-worth boosted by a happy
spate of "likes", or destroyed by the
opposite – a resounding silence. At
least on Twitter, which usually
does not have many pictures,
people are judgmental about each other's wit or ideas, rather than their hair.
Nonetheless, Freedland thinks that the selfie does in fact have one redeeming feature and this
is that they are not designed to be looked at solely by the subject. The selfie's usual purpose is
to be transmitted by social media – with "social" being the key word. Selfies may be focused
on the self, but in fact, they also express a timeless human need to connect with others.
English – Comprehension Text – Form 2 Secondary – L7 to L8 – 2016
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