Below is problem 33 of this year's English exam. For the English section of the exam, there are a total of 45 questions; 17 listening comprehension (around 25 minutes) and 28 reading comprehension questions (around 45 minutes). Imagine yourself (if you're non-Korean) trying to comprehend something like this in a completely foreign language.
33.
Heritage is concerned with the ways in which very selective material artefacts,
mythologies, memories and traditions become resources for the present. The
contents, interpretations and representations of the resource are selected
according to the demands of the present; an imagined past provides resources
for a heritage that is to be passed onto an imagined future. It follows too
that the meanings and functions of memory and tradition are defined in the
present. Further, heritage is more concerned with meanings than material
artefacts. It is the former that give value, either cultural or financial, to
the latter and explain why they have been selected from the near infinity of
the past. In turn, they may later be discarded as the demands of present
societies change, or even, as is presently occurring in the former Eastern
Europe, when pasts have to be reinvented to reflect new presents. Thus heritage
is __________________. [3 points]
① about preserving universal cultural values
② a mirror reflecting the artefacts of the past
③ neither concerned with the present nor the future
④ as much about forgetting as remembering the past
⑤ a collection of memories and traditions of a society
It's questions like this that make me glad I don't take standardized tests anymore.
When I took the GREs in 2008, I received a 480 on the verbal section (which was bad given I was applying to PhD programs), and a perfect 6/6 on the written section. I actually didn't qualify for a handful of programs, because they required ESL students to achieve 500 or greater (so I was below what a non-english speaker needs to score, and I spoke english as a first language). So, somehow I was an excellent writer, but had poor verbal skills.
It's remarkable that we test people against this style of language, both domestically in the US and abroad, given the unlikeliness someone will ever stumble across this type of prose. And, if you do, you should really ask the writer why they're trying to be so convoluted in their argument.
My guess as a non-native speaker (living in an english-speaking country) is 4, and the next best is 3. That's how I interpret the description above the answers. But the tricky part is that that the sentences are incredibly convoluted, and that the word might already have a slightly different definition for most people (like 5).
I guessed 4 as well. My take away from the passage was that despite what people think, what is often represented as heritage can be selective in nature. The clue was in the phrase "why they have been selected from the near infinity of the past".
While this is a good taste of Suneung, note that this problem is considered the most difficult one in this year's English exam. (The day after Suneung, major newspapers report the difficulty assessment of the test done by professional analysts. I read about this problem there.)
33. Heritage is concerned with the ways in which very selective material artefacts, mythologies, memories and traditions become resources for the present. The contents, interpretations and representations of the resource are selected according to the demands of the present; an imagined past provides resources for a heritage that is to be passed onto an imagined future. It follows too that the meanings and functions of memory and tradition are defined in the present. Further, heritage is more concerned with meanings than material artefacts. It is the former that give value, either cultural or financial, to the latter and explain why they have been selected from the near infinity of the past. In turn, they may later be discarded as the demands of present societies change, or even, as is presently occurring in the former Eastern Europe, when pasts have to be reinvented to reflect new presents. Thus heritage is __________________. [3 points]
① about preserving universal cultural values
② a mirror reflecting the artefacts of the past
③ neither concerned with the present nor the future
④ as much about forgetting as remembering the past
⑤ a collection of memories and traditions of a society