IT - practice test 2 - Bui Nhung

Both the reading and the listening discuss the same topic that is who discovering America. However, their perspective is totally different. While the reading claims that Chinese sailors found this land in 1421, a half century before Columbus did, the listening casts doubt on it by giving opposite information.

Firstly, the theory in the passage shows that the anchor found in the California coast strongly supports its belief. On the other hand, the lecturer says that this anchor just is similar with the anchor of ancient Chinese junks in shape but different in material. A lot of tests indicate that the anchor is composed of rocks native to California, not China. Furthermore, it was most likely designed and made by Chinese-America sailors or fishermen in 19^th  century instead of in 15^th century. So there are no evidence to conclude that that anchor was made by Chinese.

Secondly, the writer assumes that the Newport Tower in Rhode Island has built by Chinese. On the contrary, the speaker shows that there is no clue to believe in that argument. According to a lot of researches, comparisons and radiocarbons dating of the age of the structure’s stones, this tower was built in the 1600s after Columbus found American. Moreover, there is also no evidence to conclude that the Chinese settlers built this tower.

Finally, according to the passage, linguistic similarities between Native America and Chinese is a strong evidence to support for its conclusion. But the lecturer thinks that these similarities make non sense. It is impossible to compare these languages because they have countless dialects. In addition, a lot of notes exposed by historians and linguists deny the existence of the “shared words”. The speaker also says that these similarities seems to be coincidences.