CGS Prelim 2025 SS QP

CRESCENT GIRLS’ SCHOOL SECONDARY FOUR PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION 2025 HUMANITIES (SS, GEOGRAPHY) 2260/1 HUMANITIES (SS, HISTORY) 2261/1 HUMANITIES (SS, LIT IN ENGLISH) 2262/1 28 August 2025 1 hour 45 mins READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Write your name, class and register number on your writing paper. Write in dark blue or black pen on both sides of the paper. Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid. Section A Answer all questions. Section B Answer both questions. Start each section on a fresh piece of writing paper. At the end of the examination, fasten the answers to Section A and Section B separately. The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question. This paper consists of 8 printed pages. Class: Register No: Name:

2 Section A (Source-Based Case Study) Answer all questions. Exploring Citizenship and Governance Study the Background Information and the sources carefully, and then answer all the questions. You may use any of the sources to help you answer the questions, in addition to those sources which you are told to use. In answering the questions , you should use your knowledge of the topic to help you interpret and evaluate the sources. 1 Study Source A. What can you infer about the cartoonist’s beliefs towards Artificial Intelligence? Explain your answer. [5] 2 Study Sources B and C. How different are the two sources? Explain your answer. [7] 3 Study Source D and E. Having read Source D, are you surprised by Source E? Explain your answer. [7] 4 Study Source F. How useful is this source regarding Artificial Intelligence? Explain your answer. [6] 5 “Artificial Intelligence presents more challenges than opportunities for society.” Using sources in this case study, explain how far you would agree with this statement. [10]

3 How far should we embrace the use of Artificial Intelligence? BACKGROUND INFORMATION Read this carefully. It may help you to answer some of the questions. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been met with caution and excitement. Many are concerned about AI’s implications. It has potential for malicious use. The way it has been deployed has raised questions about the safety of personal data. Many employees are also increasingly concerned about losing their jobs because of AI. Nevertheless, when used properly, AI is widely regarded to make our lives easier, allowing us to automate many processes, with applications in important functions like law-enforcement and education. Many experts also largely believe that many jobs that require high emotional intelligence and human interaction are in less danger of being replaced, such as mental health professionals, people involved in creative work and teachers. Read the following sources to find out how far we should embrace the use of AI. Source A: A post titled “AI is a Tool”, by a cartoonist who is also a marketing professional, 9 Sep 2024.

4 Source B: Adapted from an article in a tech magazine about a recently developed AI model and its developer’s efforts in training it to engage in ethical behaviour, 22 May 2025. The AI model has been trained to behave ethically. When prompted to automate itself, it has the power to make ethical decisions on its own. If it thinks you are doing something immoral with your data, it will take control of your system and send relevant information to the authorities. While well-intended, the resulting behaviour raises all sorts of questions for its users, including enterprises and business customers — primarily, what behaviours will the model consider immoral and act upon? Will it share private business or user data with authorities on its own, without the user’s permission? The implications are profound and could be detrimental to users, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the company faced an immediate and still ongoing torrent of criticism from the AI community. Source C: Extracted from an article by AI researchers, regarding the use of AI in education, published in an Education Technology academic journal, 11 Nov 2023. AI-powered assessment tools have the potential to greatly improve grading efficiency and enable students to learn effectively with instant feedback. By automating the grading process, they may help reduce teacher workload, allowing them more time for quality interaction with students. Another benefit of using AI for assessment lies in its capability to of fer personalised and adaptive learning and assessment with immediate feedback and tailored learning tasks based on students’ abilities and performance levels. However, with the powerful features of generative AI to create various types of new content simply with user prompts, educators are concerned about academic integrity and accountability. There are also major concerns about privacy and data security. The personalised learning experience is enabled by data collection by AI-powered assessment tools. However, research suggests that students are cautious about sharing sensitive personal data for learning analytics systems.

5 Source D: Adapted from an i nterview with a former self-employed advertising consultant, in an article titled “AI is already displacing jobs in some sectors. What can workers do to prepare?”, 28 March 2025. For over 15 years, I helped mainly small- and medium-sized enterprises raise their profiles through marketing campaigns. Then, almost overnight, everything changed with generative AI. Clients started to turn us down or use AI as a bargaining chip for a lower price for my service. Some clients will sort of ‘threaten’ us by saying that if we don’t take the lower offer, they will just use AI to do the marketing and writing work for them. I gave in a couple of times but always ended up terminating the projects because the amount they were paying made it not worth my time and effort. After about seven months without work, I gave up . I decided to start a home - based food business. Initially, I didn’t think of doing a food business at all – until one day, I accepted that AI had taken over my job. Source E: Adapted from a speech by Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister for Digital Development and Information, delivered at a tech event, 28 May 2025. At the event, Mrs Teo also announced n ew initiatives to encourage responsible AI adoption. As AI becomes indispensable in the workplace, there are also concerns that workers could lag in their workplace contributions. Employees should take initiative to have a basic understanding of AI, since you are going to use AI in some way. The rise of AI will also mean increased demand for professionals with specialised skills. Singapore will need to boost support for formalised training to support businesses' AI needs. We will ensure there is enough support to keep this going.

6 Source F: Adapted from a speech by Elon Musk, a businessman known for his ventures in the tech industry, delivered at a tech conference, 23 May 2024. Artificial intelligence will take all our jobs and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Probably none of us will have a job. If you want to do a job as a hobby, you can do a job. But otherwise, AI and the robots will provide any goods and services that you want. There would be no shortage of goods or services. Still, I have my fears about AI. The question will really be one of meaning – if the computer and robots can do everything better than you, does your life have meaning? I do think there’s perhaps still a role for humans in this – in that we may give AI meaning.

7 SECTION B (Structured-Response Questions) Answer both questions.