Cheer champs

 

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.

By Ajarn Helen Jandamit

Read the following story by Yanapon Musiket from the Bangkok Post. Then, answer the questions that follow.

American Luke Cassady-Dorion charms most Thais with his friendly personality and his fluency in speaking Thai. As a documentary filmmaker, Luke recently impressed Thai audiences with his debut film, which is a work that Thais can be proud of.

Luke’s documentary, The Cheer Ambassadors, premiered in January as part of the World Film Festival in Bangkok. The film chronicles the inspirational journey of Bangkok University’s cheerleading team, who represented Thailand at an international cheerleading competition in the US.

Luke, who also works as a yoga instructor, said that the idea for the film came up when chatting with his boyfriend Thapanont Phithakrattanayothin, who was a member of the Bangkok University cheerleading team. He told of how the team won a silver medal at the cheerleading world championship and the hardship that they encountered to achieve this goal.

Inspired by the story, Luke decided to make a documentary about the team, with his friend Jason W. Best acting as executive producer of the film.

The Cheer Ambassadors looks at the origins of the BU cheerleading team and their entry into the 2009 International Cheer Union World Cheerleading Championships in Orlando, Florida, where they won a silver medal. They repeated this achievement in 2011. The film then follows their entry last year into the Cheerleading Worlds competition, where they tied with the US for first place, putting Thailand on the world cheerleading map.

With so much great material available, Luke decided to focus on the team’s coach, with his passion for cheerleading and his dream of visiting the US for the first time.

As the first Thai cheerleading team to ever compete on the global stage and beat teams from around the world, the story is undoubtedly attractive to local viewers. As well as letting Thais know how great their cheerleaders are, Luke wanted to show viewers around the world how great Thai people are in general.

Luke said that the next step for The Cheer Ambassadors is to send it to international film festivals, as well as on a nationwide roadshow with the hope that it will inspire as many Thais as possible.

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Section 1

Read the story. Then, decide whether the following statements are true or false.

1. According to the author, Luke speaks Thai fluently.

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2. Luke is a professional cyclist as well as a filmmaker.

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3. Luke’s boyfriend was a member of the Rangsit University cheerleading team.

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4. The Thai cheerleading team tied with the US team at last year’s Cheerleading Worlds contest.

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5. The 2009 ICU World Cheerleading Championships contest was held in Las Vegas.

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Section 2

Rearrange the following groups of words to form grammatically correct sentences.

6. told He the how team won silver medal a.

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7. the executive the film of producer became Jason.

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8. sending Luke is the film to film festivals international.

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9. is Luke yoga instructor a also.

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10. the story inspired by was He.

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Section 3

In each of the following groups of words, one word has a different meaning from others. Underline the word in each group that is not a synonym of the other words.

11. international	global	continent	worldwide
12. attractive	pretty	likely	lovely
13. compliment	achievement	accomplishment	triumph
14. character	personality	persona	personnel

 

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Section 4

Match each of the following vocabulary words used in the story with the correct definition from the choices that follow.

15. fluency 16. championship 17. undoubtedly 18. hardship 19. inspire

a. used to emphasise that something exists or is definitely true b. a competition to find the best player or team in a particular sport c. the quality of being able to speak or write a language, especially a foreign language, easily and well d. to give somebody the desire, confidence or enthusiasm to do something well e. a situation that is difficult and unpleasant, especially because you do not have enough money, food, clothes, etc.

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Section 5

Rewrite the following sentences with the correct preposition from the underlined choices.

20. Luke impresses Thai people with or beyond his fluency in speaking Thai.

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21. He was inspired by or beside the story.

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22. Thai people should be proud off or of Luke’s film.

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23. He had a great passion from or for cheerleading.

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24. Luke said he will send the film to or onto international film festivals.

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