2022 DSE English Past Paper 閱讀材料 (中英翻譯 + MP3 配音) 免費版

2022 DSE English Past Paper

• (A) Hong Kong’s comic industry is proverbially in shreds.

  
  

• (B1) Social Media Marketing Assistant

  
  

• (B2) Ethical concerns mount as AI takes bigger decision-making role in more industries

  
  

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Hong Kong’s comic industry is proverbially in shreds.

眾所周知，香港的漫畫業已經支離破碎。

[1] In recent months, old-school Hong Kong comics appear to be gaining much attention. Alfonso Wong, the genius behind the Old Master Q series that has captivated countless readers since 1962, showcased 128 drawings at an auction. All those pieces were sold at the event, which drew more than 5,000 visitors in 10 days, evidence that fans are still rabid for traditional comics. 

[2] Meanwhile, there is an exhibition by another homegrown comic mastermind, Lee Wai Chun Theresa, the artist-author behind the popular Miss 13 Dot series. Her ‘13-Dot exhibition at Comic Home Base in Wan Chai is also hotly tipped. 

[3] To the undiscerning observer, it’s easy to interpret the signs as evidence of a healthy homegrown industry. In truth, they are rare moments of reprieve from a harsh reality: the traditional comic industry in Hong Kong is dying. Its pains have frequently been reported in the media: years of declining book sales, industry players struggling to make a living. What led to this predicament? Does the highly visual book culture, which has captivated many generations of fans, have a future? It may one day become a relic, only accessible at cultural exhibitions and auction houses.

[4] During the heyday for comics in the 1980s and 1990s, illustrators like Hong Kong artist Lam Cheung Kwan Elphonso could make a living drawing comics exclusively, just as he did while working on titles like ‘True Love’, ‘The Jam’and ‘Super Seven’. “Now, if I only drew comics, J wouldn’t make enough income,”he says.

[5] Lam’s latest comics include ‘Seer’, which is featured in a local magazine, and the artist also just released “The Greatest Hits’ this month, a collection of short story illustrations he penned from the 1990s to now. Additionally, he has to juggle many jobs, including story boarding for films, design work for fashion brands, figurine production and artwork for merchandising: many industry veterans like himself who have experienced the heyday for comics have seen their profession dwindle into side jobs.

[6] The main culprit behind this predicament? “Free website comics have destroyed the industry,”he says. Readers can get shorter four-block strips online, which are updated frequently, at no cost. Like many industries disrupted by the internet revolution —music, newspapers, TV and films —the comic scene is struggling against the tide of free original or pirated content. “In this age, readers think they don’t need to pay for comics, like free music,”says Lam.

[7] The threshold to enter the scene has become low. Anyone can become a comic artist; all you need is a website. Traditionally, artists like Lam laboured for years to acquire skills to draw comics and to secure opportunities in the profession. Success back then meant generating quality books that achieved high sales. Now? “If you upload comics to a website and generate many clicks, you can become famous,”says Lam. He thinks poor quality digital content by amateurs has contributed to the industry’s collapse.

[8] Official statistics about this sector are difficult to get. Alan Wan, CEO of Anitime Animation Studio and one of the founding directors at the Hong Kong Comics and Animation Federation, reveals educated estimates. He has been in the business since the 1970s in various roles starting first as a writer and then moving into production, licensing, syndication, and management. He recalls the peak between 1995 and 2000 when the market generated around HKD 700 million from local comics, Chinese-translated Japanese Manga and more. “By 2010 that figure fell to around HKD 300 million, a drop of more than 50 percent,”Wan says.

[9] These numbers were collated from more than 80 companies that were part of the Hong Kong Comics and Animation Federation. The executive agrees that free digital comics have obliterated a significant portion of the market, but stresses that a toxic storm of other factors has also contributed to the current pains. There’s the dwindling distribution network. For instance, comic stores are a dying breed. There were around 350 comic stores at the peak of the market, now there are less than 100, he says. Likewise, street news vendors, who comic publishers depended on to stock their print material, are nearing extinction.

[10] “The Hong Kong government will not grant new licenses to news stands, which is why you see them less nowadays.” Additionally, these independent street Operators are unable to compete with the proliferation of convenience store chains, which have become a more prevalent medium for selling various printed materials, They charge higher fees than newsstands to have content stocked in their stores, so many comic book publishers do not use this platform.

[11] The industry veteran left the local comic scene four years ago to join the animation TV, film and toy business in the Mainland at Anitime Animation Studio. “it’s tough being in a new business and a totally different environment,but if I had stayed in Hong Kong, I would have faced having to shrink my business and changing everything just fora small market.” Wan would rather work hard to overcome his challenges in the Mainland (which include different regulations and audience tastes), as he's optimistic about the Prospect of greater gains in a bigger market if he succeeds.

[12] Many former publishers like himself have adapted in the new era, whether it’s by switching to different markets or mediums or by branching out to other sides of the business such as licensing digital content to gaming companies. You can’t just rely on the old market of comic book publishing,” Wan says.

[13] Yet he remains positive about the industry’s outlook, hoping it becomes more creative and innovative in these evolving times. “People want more content from many devices, not only from publishing but from TV, mobiles, game consoles and computers.” Wan insists that in these more connected and globalised times, content producers need to reevaluate their competitors and consumers, as every product needs to be international, not local. “Your competition is now worldwide,”he says. So locally-focused content, which only Hong Kongers can appreciate, won’t export well. He advises instead: conceive good content that attracts a broader audience. 

[14] Lam agrees that a greater diversity of comic styles is needed as the new generation of readers demand new stories and visuals. While other leading comic nations like the US and Japan have worked to stay in tune with the evolving readership, this is not so in Hong Kong. “Many old-school comic artists have not updated their kung fu- style, which was popular from the 1960s to the 1990s,”explains Lam. The artist adds most young people find these fighting comics outdated. “Now they want lifestyle comics about girlfriends and boyfriends, families or themes relatable to the troubles in their lives,”

[15] He’s pessimistic about the industry’s future, citing the demolition of the Kowloon Walled City as an example of how culture and history is unappreciated in Hong Kong. “People’s style here is money, money, money. They don’t want to keep the culture. They just destroy and destroy.”Asked whether he foresees improvements in the industry anytime soon, he simply shrugs. 

JOB A -B1

Social Media Marketing Assistant 

STAR RESORT HOTELS 

Job Summary

* Works Summary: closely with local and regional sales and marketing teams for social media needs (Instagram, Facebook, WeChat, etc.) 

Job Requirements: 

* Diploma in Marketing /Communications / Hospitality 

* Experience in advertising / design 

* Ability to work well in small teams 

* Knowledge of other countries / cultures

JOB B 

IT Assistant Technician (6-month contract) KING’S GROUP 

Job Summary: 

* Provides IT support for office and warehouse management software 

* Trains users on property management software 

Job Requirements: 

* Diploma or above in Computer Science or related disciplines 

* Experience in IT support, preferably gained from property management industry

JOB C 

Assistant to Chef 

NANONG CHAIN OF RESTAURANTS 

Good opportunity to advance because the chef will teach assistants 

Job Summary: 

* Assists chef in daily operations 

* Needs to work long shifts 

Job Requirements: 

* Experience with a wide variety of cooking techniques 

* Quick learner who enjoys challenges

JOB D 

Multi-media Designer 

MONOSHINE CLOTHES GROUP 

Job Summary: 

* Provides creative designs for the image of the retail brand 

* Creates graphics for social media accounts 

Job Requirements: 

* Higher diploma or above in Graphic Design or related disciplines 

* Understanding of brand image and design

Graduate job seeking: The rise of the 'slasher'

畢業生求職新趨勢："斜杠青年"崛起

[1] A slasher refers to a new group of workers. The slasher, also called a popular. It describes one person with a number of jobs and the slash (/)who is an X/Y/Z or a journalist/web editor/advertiser

[2] In the past, an employee was traditionally expected to put in 40 hours per week (plus the other 40 hours of unpaid overtime!) into a single career. However, the unstable job market has led many individuals to take on various jobs at the same time, as a form of safe-keeping their own incomes.

[3] Self-proclaimed slasher Jane Mellon wrote, ‘This approach might appeal tony one who has lost their job. When our entire income comes from a single position, losing it would drop us from comfort into terror. For a slasher with multiple sources of income, losing one job would not be a disaster if she still has five more.’

[4] There is even better news, as it may be easier to recover from losing a job as a slasher. Not only does the slasher not need to hunt for a new full-time permanent job, she also has a stronger and wider skillset, which is reinforced by strong time management and organisation skills. After all, to balance multiple jobs, you require excellent self-motivation and exceptional planning ability.

[5] For the modern graduate, the idea that you can become a slasher can be very attractive. Alex McDonald graduated with a degree in computer science and has juggled multiple roles since then. He said, ‘I've been a web developer,games tester, a web designer and an occasional writer. It makes me more employable in a tough market.’

[6] Erin Albert is a widely recognised expert on the Portfolio career, having not only recently written a new book on the subject but also acted as a role-model to slashers everywhere. Erin is a pharmacist, an assistant professor, an entrepreneur, a writer, and a law student: does this make her any less employable? ‘I'm often asked about career development, especially during the current economic crisis,’ she said. ‘I regularly Challenge students to think about why they can’t both take an immediate job offer they are not sure about and work towards their dream job.’

[7] In the UK, entrepreneurs are a typical example of a group that expects to spread their careers across multiple areas. This inspired Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation and Bitsy, to publish Working Five to Nine: How to Start a Business in Your Spare Time. Emma said, ‘I thought it was the very best way to start a business as you keep risks low and give yourself time to build confidence and cash flow. I wanted to tell these stories and offer a guide to others wanting to follow the same path. The title Working Five to Nine came to me when I was sitting at my computer working on my own business during a 5 pm to 9 am shift!’

[8] Unfortunately, even accounting for the Positives of being a slasher, some attitudes have been slow to change. Headhunters and recruiters are often disapproving of individuals who have worked multiple jobs at the same time, while some are even disbelieving. Recruiter Norman Lamp said to a slasher client, ‘There is no way someone your age could have such a wide variety of skills,’ Many recruiters do not believe that these skills are deeply ingrained in the young people with slasher careers.

[9] Its no surprise that a greater number of people under 30 are choosing to have portfolio careers. For the typical Millennial, the typical behaviour patterns of immediate pleasure seeking, multitasking and low boredom thresholds(typically all summed into the phrase ‘instant on’) make slashing particularly appealing. Many large organisations May mistakenly see these characteristics as weaknesses in the younger generation. They should see them as strengths.

[10] For the foreseeable future, the advantages of being a slasher will, in most cases, continue to outweigh the negatives. And as the younger generation grow up, the slasher Philosophy will no doubt continue to grow.

COMMENTS 

craftsman - 8 April 2022 10:45 

Interesting article on ‘slashers’ —portfolio working is nothing new but it is interesting that this type of career is on the rise. The article seems to ignore creative talents like artists and craftsmen who have complex and diverse careers. Far from seeing this as a negative e, craftsmen like myself believe that portfolio working is a very fulfilling way to work.

girlartisan - 8 April 2022 13:29

I'm a slasher because there really is no choice. There just aren’t any jobs out there even for those who have graduated with high grades. Since I graduated from my degree, I have been a portfolio worker because of this and they don’t even consider my slasher experience.

bellaneil - 9 April 2022 16:23

I am a Millennial struggling to make a living and feel patronised by this article. I am doing this to survive! Just giving it a cool name doesn’t make my situation cool.

Ethical concerns mount as AI takes bigger decision-making role in more industries - B2

隨著人工智能在更多行業承擔重大决策職責，倫理隱憂日益凸顯

[1] For decades, artificial intelligence, or Al, has been the engine of high-level STEAM research.Most consumers became aware of the technology’s power and potential through internet platforms retailer Amazon. Today, AI is essential across a vast array of industries, including health care, manufacturing.

[2] But its game-changing promise to do things like improve efficiency, bring down costs, and accelerate research and development has been tempered of late with worries that these complex systems may do more societal harm than economic good. With virtually no government regulations, private companies use Al software to make determinations about health and medicine, employment and creditworthiness without having to answer for how they are ensuring that their programmes are not encoded with structural biases.

[3] Joseph Fuller professor of management practice, explains that in employment, AI software sots and processes resumes and analyses job interviewees’voice and facial expressions. The result is the growth of what’s known as ‘hybrid’ jobs. Rather than replacing employees, AI takes on important technical tasks of their work, freeing workers to focus on other responsibilities, making them more productive and therefore more valuable to employers.

[4] While Big Business Lea has a huge head start, small businesses could also potentially be transformed by the implementation of AI, says Karen Mils, who ran the U.S. Small Business Administration from 2009 to 2013. This could have major implications for the national economy over the long haul as most people in the U.S. are employed by small businesses. Rather than hampering small businesses, the technology could give their owners detailed new insights into sales trends, cash flow, inventory, ordering, and other financial information in real time. This will help them understand how the business is doing and where problem areas might loom without having to hire any other experts in finance, accounting, or human resources. The owner doesn’t need to become a financial expert, or spend hours labouring over the books every week, Mills said.

What are the ethical concerns of using Al in decision-making?

[5] Michael Sandel  privacy, discrimination, and perhaps the deepest, most difficult philosophical question of the era, the role of human judgement. “Debates about privacy safeguards and about how to overcome bias in algorithmic decision-making in employment practices are by now familiar,”said Sandel, referring to intentional and unintentional prejudices of programme developers and those built into datasets used to train the software. “But we've not yet wrapped our minds around the hardest question: Can smart machines out-think us, or are certain elements of human judgement indispensable in deciding some of the most important things in life?”

[6] Panic over AI suddenly injecting bias into everyday life en mass is overstated, says Fuller. First, the business world and the workplace, rife with human decision-making, have always been riddled with “all sorts’of biases that prevent people from making deals or landing contracts and jobs. “When calibrated carefully and deployed thoughtfully, resume-screening software allows a wider pool of applicants to be considered than could be done otherwise, and should minimise the potential for favoritism that comes with human gatekeepers,”Fuller said. Sandel disagrees. “AI not only replicates human biases, it confers on these biases a kind of scientific credibility. It makes it seem that these predictions and judgments have an objective status,”he said.

[7] “In the world of lending, algorithm-driven decisions do have a potential dark side,”Mills said, As machines learn from the data sets they’re fed, chances are ‘pretty high’ they may replicate many of the banking industry’s past failings that resulted in discrimination against minority groups. “If we are not thoughtful and careful, we are going to end up with redlining again,” she said. “A highly regulated industry, banks are legally on the hook if the algorithms they use to evaluate loan applications end up inappropriately discriminating against classes of consumers, so those ‘at the top levels’ in the field are ‘very focused’ right now on this issue,” said Mills, who closely studies the rapid changes in financial technology,r ‘fintech’. “They really don’t want to discriminate. They want to give access to capital to the most creditworthy borrowers,”she said. “That’s good business for them, too.”

How much government regulation is needed?

[8] Given its power and expected ubiquity, some argue that the use of AI should be tightly regulated. But there's little consensus on how that should be done and who should make the rules, Thus far, compantes that develop or use AI systems largely self-police, relying on existing laws and market forces, like negative reactions from consumers and shareholders as well as the demands of the highly-prized Al technical talents to keep them in line.

[9] “There’s no businessperson on the planet at an enterprise of any size who isn’t concerned about this and trying to reflect on what’s going to be politically, legally, regulatorily, or ethically acceptable,” said Fuller. “Firms already consider their own potential liability from misuse before a product launch, but it’s not realistic to expect companies to anticipate and prevent every possible unintended consequence of their products,” he said.

[10] Jason Furman, professor of the practice of economic policy, agrees that government regulators need “a much better technical understanding of artificial intelligence to do that job well,” but says they could do it. “Existing transportation regulations could handle potential AI issues in autonomous vehicles rather than setting up another Al group in the existing government system,” he said. Enforcing Al regulation within industries by industry-specific panels who are more knowledgeable about the overarching technology could make oversight of AI more thorough. “I think governments should’ve started this long ago, but better late than never,” said Furman, who thinks there needs to be a ‘greater sense of urgency’ to make governments act.

[11] “Business leaders can’t have it both ways, refusing responsibility for Al's harmful consequences while also fighting government oversight,” Sandel maintains. “The current situation is these big tech companies are neither self-regulating, nor subject to adequate government regulation. I think there needs to be more of both,” he said, later adding: “We can’t assume that market forces by themselves will sort it out. That's a mistake, as we've seen with Facebook and other tech giants.”

[12] “Companies have to think seriously about the ethical dimensions of what they're doing and we, as US citizens, have to educate ourselves about tech and its social and ethical implications — not only to decide what the regulations should be, but also to decide what role we want big tech and social media to play in our lives,” said Sandel. Doing that will require a major educational intervention in higher education. He said, “we have to enable all students to learn enough about tech and about the ethical implications of new technologies so that when they are running companies or when they are acting as citizens, they will be able to ensure that technology serves human purposes rather than undermines a decent civic life.”