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Tài liệu Bồi dưỡng HSG – Năm học 2022-2023
READING
PART 1
Passage 1
Computer provides more questions than answers
A The island of Antikythera lies 18 miles north of Crete, where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean. Currents there can make shipping treacherous – and one ship bound for ancient Rome never made it. The ship that sank there was a giant cargo vessel measuring nearly 500 feet long. It came to rest about 200 feet below the surface, where it stayed for more than 2,000 years until divers looking for sponges discovered the wreck a little more than a century ago.
B Inside the hull were a number of bronze and marble statues. From the look of things, the ship seemed to be carrying luxury items, probably made in various Greek islands and bound for wealthy patrons in the growing Roman Empire. The statues were retrieved, along with a lot of other unimportant stuff, and stored. Nine months later, an enterprising archaeologist cleared off a layer of organic material from one of the pieces of junk and found that it looked like a gearwheel. It had inscriptions in Greek characters and seemed to have something to do with astronomy.
C That piece of “junk” went on to become the most celebrated find from the shipwreck; it is displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Research has shown that the wheel was part of a device so sophisticated that its complexity would not be matched for a thousand years – it was also the world’s first known analogue computer. The device is so famous that an international conference organized in Athens a couple of weeks ago had only one subject: the Antikythera Mechanism.
D Every discovery about the device has raised new questions. Who built the device, and for what purpose? Why did the technology behind it disappear for the next thousand years? What does the device tell us about ancient Greek culture? And does the marvelous construction, and the precise knowledge of the movement of the sun and moon and Earth that it implies, tell us how the ancients grappled with ideas about determinism and human destiny?
E “We have gear trains from the 9th century in Baghdad used for simpler displays of the solar and lunar motions relative to one another – they use eight gears,” said François Charette, a historian of science in Germany who wrote an editorial accompanying a new study of the mechanism two weeks ago in the journal Nature. “In this case, we have more than 30 gears. To see it on a computer animation makes it mind-boggling. There is no doubt it was a technological masterpiece.”
F The device was probably built between 100 and 140 BC, and the understanding of astronomy it displays seems to have been based on knowledge developed by the Babylonians around 300-700 BC, said Mike Edmunds, a professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University in Britain. He led a research team that reconstructed what the gear mechanism would have looked like by using advanced three
dimensional-imaging technology. The group also decoded a number of the inscriptions. The mechanism explores the relationship between lunar months – the time it takes for the moon to cycle through its phases, say, full moon to the full moon – and calendar years. The gears had to be cut precisely to reflect this complex relationship; 19 calendar years equal 235 lunar months.
G By turning the gear mechanism, which included what Edmunds called a beautiful system of epicyclic gears that factored in the elliptical orbit of the moon, a person could check what the sky would have looked like on a date in the past, or how it would appear in the future. The mechanism was encased in a box with doors in front and back covered with inscriptions – a sort of instruction manual. Inside the front door were pointers indicating the date and the position of the sun, moon and zodiac, while opening the back door revealed the relationship between calendar years and lunar months, and a mechanism to predict eclipses.
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H “If they needed to know when eclipses would occur, and this related to the rising and setting of stars and related them to dates and religious experiences, the mechanism would directly help,” said Yanis Bitsakis, a physicist at the University of Athens who co-wrote the Nature paper. “It is a mechanical computer. You turn the handle and you have a date on the front.” Building it would have been expensive and required the interaction of astronomers, engineers, intellectuals and craftspeople. Charette said the device overturned conventional ideas that the ancient Greeks were primarily ivory tower thinkers who did not deign to muddy their hands with technical stuff. It is a reminder, he said, that while the study of history often focuses on written texts, they can tell us only a fraction of what went on at a particular time.
I Imagine a future historian encountering philosophy texts written in our time - and an aircraft engine. The books would tell that researcher what a few scholars were thinking today, but the engine would give them a far better window into how technology influenced our everyday lives. Charette said it was unlikely that the device was used by practitioners of astrology, then still in its infancy. More likely, he said, it was bound for a mantelpiece in some rich Roman’s home. Given that astronomers of the time already knew how to calculate the positions of the sun and the moon and to predict eclipses without the device, it would have been the equivalent of a device built for a planetarium today – something to spur popular interest or at least claim bragging rights.
J Why was the technology that went into the device lost? “The time this was built, the jackboot of Rome was coming through,” Edmunds said. “The Romans were good at town planning and sanitation but were not known for their interest in science.” The fact that the device was so complex, and that it was being shipped with a number of other luxury items, tells Edmunds that it is very unlikely to have been the only one over made. Its sophistication “is such that it can’t have been the only one,” Edmunds said. “There must have been a tradition of making them. We’re always hopeful a better one will surface.” Indeed, he said, he hopes that his study and the renewed interest in the Antikythera Mechanism will prompt second looks by both amateurs and professionals around the world. “The archaeological world may look in their cupboards and maybe say, ‘That isn’t a bit of rusty old metal in the cupboard.”
Questions 1-5: The Reading Passage has ten paragraphs A-J. Which paragraph contains the following information?
1. The content inside the wrecked ship
2. Ancient astronomers and craftsman might involve
3. The location of the Antikythera Mechanism
4. Details of how it was found
5. Appearance and structure of the mechanism
Questions 6-9: Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of the passage, using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
An ancient huge sunk (6)……………………. was found accidentally by sponges searcher. The ship loaded with (7)……………………. such as bronze and sculptures. However, an archaeologist found a junk similar to a (8)……………………. which has Greek script on it. This inspiring and elaborated device was found to be the first (9)……………………. in the world.
Questions 10-13: Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-C) with opinions or deeds below. NB You may use any letter more than once
A Yanis Bitsakis
B Mike Edmunds
C François Charette
10. More complicated than the previous device
11. Anticipate to find more Antikythera Mechanism in the future
12. Antikythera Mechanism was found related to the moon
13. Mechanism assisted ancient people to calculate the movement of stars.
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Passage 2
Knowledge in medicine
A. What counts as knowledge? What do we mean when we say that we know something? What is the status of different kinds of knowledge? In order to explore these questions we are going to focus on one particular area of knowledge – medicine.
B. How do you know when you are ill? This may seem to be an absurd question. You know you are ill because you feel ill; your body tells you that you are ill. You may know that you feel pain or discomfort but knowing you are ill is a bit more complex. At times, people experience the symptoms of illness, but in fact they are simply tired or over-worked or they may just have a hangover. At other times, people may be suffering from a disease and fail to be aware of the illness until it has reached a late stage in its development. So how do we know we are ill, and what counts as knowledge?
C. Think about this example. You feel unwell. You have a bad cough and always seem to be tired. Perhaps it could be stress at work, or maybe you should give up smoking. You feel worse. You visit the doctor who listens to your chest and heart, takes your temperature and blood pressure, and then finally prescribes antibiotics for your cough.
D. Things do not improve but you struggle on thinking you should pull yourself together, perhaps things will ease off at work soon. A return visit to your doctor shocks you. This time the doctor, drawing on years of training and experience, diagnoses pneumonia. This means that you will need bed rest and a considerable time off work. The scenario is transformed. Although you still have the same symptoms, you no longer think that these are caused by pressure at work. You now have proof that you are ill. This is the result of the combination of your own subjective experience and the diagnosis of someone who has the status of a medical expert. You have a medically authenticated diagnosis and it appears that you are seriously ill; you know you are ill and have evidence upon which to base this knowledge.
E. This scenario shows many different sources of knowledge. For example, you decide to consult the doctor in the first place because you feel unwell – this is personal knowledge about your own body. However, the doctor’s expert diagnosis is based on experience and training, with sources of knowledge as diverse as other experts, laboratory reports, medical textbooks and years of experience.
F. One source of knowledge is the experience of our own bodies; the personal knowledge we have of changes that might be significant, as well as the subjective experience of pain and physical distress. These experiences are mediated by other forms of knowledge such as the words we have available to describe our experience and the common sense of our families and friends as well as that drawn from popular culture. Over the past decade, for example, Western culture has seen a significant emphasis on stress-related illness in the media. Reference to being stressed out has become a common response in daily exchanges in the workplace and has become part of popular common-sense knowledge. It is thus not surprising that we might seek such an explanation of physical symptoms of discomfort.
G. We might also rely on the observations of others who know us. Comments from friends and family such as you do look ill or ‘that’s a bad cough might be another source of knowledge. Complementary health practices, such as holistic medicine, produce their own sets of knowledge upon which we might also draw in deciding the nature and degree of our ill health and about possible treatments.
H. Perhaps the most influential and authoritative source of knowledge is the medical knowledge provided by the general practitioner. We expect the doctor to have access to expert knowledge. This is socially sanctioned. It would not be acceptable to notify our employer that we simply felt too unwell to turn up for work or that our faith healer, astrologer, therapist or even our priest thought it was not a good idea. We need an expert medical diagnosis in order to obtain the necessary certificate if we need to be off work for more than the statutory self-certification period. The knowledge of the medical
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sciences is privileged in this respect in contemporary Western culture. Medical practitioners are also seen as having the required expert knowledge that permits them legally to prescribe drugs and treatment to which patients would not otherwise have access. However there is a range of different knowledge upon which we draw when making decisions about our own state of health.
I. However, there is more than existing knowledge in this little story; new knowledge is constructed within it. Given the doctors’ medical training and background, she may hypothesize ‘is this now pneumonia’ and then proceed to look for evidence about it. She will use observations and instruments to assess the evidence and—critically interpret it in the light of her training and experience. This results in new knowledge and new experience both for you and for the doctor. This will then be added to the doctor’s medical knowledge and may help in future diagnosis of pneumonia.
Questions 1-6: Complete the table.
Question 7-14: The reading Passage has nine paragraphs A-I. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter A-I, in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet. 7. the contrast between the nature of personal judgment and the nature of doctor’s diagnosis 8. a reference of culture about pressure
9. sick leave will not be permitted without the professional diagnosis
10. how doctors’ opinions are regarded in the society
11. the illness of patients can become part of new knowledge
12. a description of knowledge drawn from non-specialized sources other than personal knowledge 13. an example of collective judgment from personal experience and professional doctor 14. a reference that some people do not realize they are ill
Passage 3
A. When you get tired of typical sight-seeing, when you have had enough of monuments, statues, and cathedrals, then think outside the box. Read the four paragraphs below about the innovative types of tourism emerging around the globe and discover ways to spice up your itinerary.
B. One could eat your way through your travels if one wished. A comparatively new kind of tourism is gaining popularity across the world. In this, food and beverages are the main factors that motivate a person to travel to a particular destination. Combining food, drink and culture, this type of travel provides for an authentic experience, the food and restaurants reflecting the local and unique flavors of a particular region or country. Studies conducted into this travel phenomenon have shown that food plays, consciously or unconsciously, an important part in the vacations of a good number of travelers. Those trying this are looking for a more participatory style of holiday experience. Analysts have noticed a shift from ‘passive observation’ to ‘interaction and involvement’ in tourists, whereby the visitor comes into close contact with locals and their way of life rather than remaining a mere spectator.
C. This is a novel approach to tourism in which visitors do not visit the ordinary tourist attractions in traditional fashion. Rather, they let their whims be their guides! Destinations are chosen not on their
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standard touristic merit but on the basis of an idea or concept often involving elements of humor, serendipity, and chance. One example is known as Monopoly-travel. Participants armed with the local version of a Monopoly game board explore a city at the whim of a dice roll, shuttling between elegant shopping areas and the local water plant - with the occasional visit to jail.
Another example is Counter-travel, which requires you to take snapshots with your back turned to landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben. Joël Henry, the French founder of Latourex, has developed dozens of ideas since coming up with the concept in 1990. The traveler must increase his or her receptiveness, in this way, no trip is ever planned or predictable. Henry’s most unusual invention is known as “Erotravel”, where a couple heads to the same town but travels there separately. The challenge is to find one another abroad. He and his wife have engaged in the pursuit in five cities and have managed to meet up every time.
D. This involves any crop-based or animal based operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm or ranch. It has recently become widespread in America, and participants can choose from a wide range of activities that include picking fruits and vegetables, riding horses, tasting honey, learning about wine and cheese making, or shopping in farm gift shops for local and regional products or handicrafts. For rural economies struggling to stay afloat in this age of industrial farming, it has become an important and marketable opportunity for improving the incomes and potential economic viability of small farms and rural communities. In western North Carolina, the organization ‘HandMade in America’ is using this method to develop their local economy and craft trades, and to educate visitors about farming practices. On their website, it is described as a niche market. As people are becoming more interested in the ecological importance of local food production, related projects reinforce the need to support local growers and allow visitors to experience the relationship between food and our natural environment.
E. This is the trend of traveling to destinations that are first seen in movies, for instance, touring London in a high-speed boat like James Bond or visiting the stately homes that are seen in Jane Austin films. The term was first coined in the US press in the New York Post by journalist Gretchen Kelly, who wrote a 2007 article entitled “The sexiest film locations from 2007 to visit now.”
Currently, summer blockbuster movies are being used as themed marketing tools by companies like Expedia and Fandango, who are promoting trips to where the Steven Spielberg film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was made. Corporations as well as convention and tourism boards are exploiting the trend, creating their own location based travel maps, like the Elizabeth: The Golden Age movie map published by VisitBritain, Britain’s official travel and tourism guide. Other travel itineraries have been created by tourism boards for movies including The Da Vinci Code (France), In Bruges (Belgium), and P.S. I Love You (Ireland). Although a new concept, it’s fast becoming a major factor in the choices travelers make in an increasingly tight economic climate. If a traveler has seen a site in a major motion picture, its media exposure makes it a compelling choice for a family vacation or honeymoon.
Questions 1-4: Reading Passage has five sections, A-E. Choose the correct heading for sections B-E from the list of headings below.
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Look at the following statements (Questions 5-8). Read the passage and complete the sentences using one word only from the text.
Putting together and enjoying culinary delights ensures the trip is more (5)……………………… Moving quickly between more mundane public service facilities and malls that are more (6)……………………… Film sets for hugely popular blockbuster movies are attracting couples to go there for their (7)……………………… In the USA, visiting a strawberry picking field or listening to lectures on producing good wine is becoming increasingly (8)………………………
Questions 9-12: Label as true, false or not given (T / F / NG). Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage?
Write your answers in the boxes for questions 36-39 as:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
9. Enjoying good foods is the most critical part of any good holiday for the majority of travellers. 10. Taking photos facing directly opposite from and facing away from a popular tourist site is a need for Counter-travel.
11. People are gaining appreciation for the need to back those producing local grown vegetables and other crops.
12. The term for promoting travel related to the film industry was first used in the British media. Question 13: Read the text and choose the best match for the underlined phrase in the text, from the three options, A-C.
For people who are bored of doing the usual activities such as looking at the common tourist attractions, they need to reconsider things from a different perspective. This means to think is a way that is A. unique B. new C. creative.
Passage 4
Grey Workers
A. Given the speed at which their workers are growing greyer, employers know surprisingly little about how productive they are. The general assumption is that the old are paid more in spite of, rather than because of, their extra productivity. That might partly explain why, when employers are under pressure to cut costs, they persuade the 55-year-olds to take early retirement. Earlier this year, Sun Life of Canada, an insurance company, announced that it was offering redundancy to all its British employees aged 50 or over “to bring in new blood”.
B. In Japan, says Mariko Fujiwara, an industrial anthropologist who runs a think-tank for Hakuhodo, Japan’s second-largest advertising agency, most companies are bringing down the retirement age from the traditional 57 to 50 or thereabouts - and in some cases, such as Nissan, to 45. More than perhaps anywhere else, pay in Japan is linked to seniority. Given that the percentage of workers who have spent more than 32 years with the same employer rose from 11% in 1980 to 42% by 1994, it is hardly surprising that seniority-based wage costs have become the most intractable item on corporate profit
and-loss accounts.
C. In Germany, Patrick Pohl, spokesman for Hoechst, expresses a widely held view: “The company is trying to lower the average age of the workforce. Perhaps the main reason for replacing older workers is that it makes it easier to ‘defrost’ the corporate culture. Older workers are less willing to try a new way of thinking. Younger workers are cheaper and more flexible.” Some German firms are hampered from getting rid of older workers as quickly as they would like. At SGL Carbon, a graphite producer, the average age of workers has been going up not down. The reason, says the company’s Ivo Lingnau, is not that SGL values older workers more. It is collective bargaining: the union agreement puts strict limits on the proportion of workers that may retire early.
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D. Clearly, when older people do heavy physical work, their age may affect their productivity. But other skills may increase with age, including many that are crucial for goods management, such as an ability to handle people diplomatically, to run a meeting or to spot a problem before it blows up. Peter Hicks, who co-ordinates OECD work on the policy implications of ageing, says that plenty of research suggests older people are paid more because they are worth more.
E. And the virtues of the young may be exaggerated. “The few companies that have kept on older workers find they have good judgment and their productivity is good, ,” says Mr. Peterson. “Besides, their education standards are much better than those of today’s young high-school graduates.” Companies may say that older workers are not worth training, because they are reaching the end of their working lives: in fact, young people tend to switch jobs so frequently that they offer the worst returns on training. “The median age for employer-driven training is the late 40s and early 50s, ,” says Mr. Hicks. “It goes mainly to managers.”
F. Take away those seniority-based pay scales, and older workers may become a much more attractive employment proposition. But most companies (and many workers) are uncomfortable with the idea of reducing someone’s pay in later life - although workers on piece-rates often earn less over time. So retaining the services of older workers may mean employing them in new ways.
G. One innovation, described in Mr. Walker’s report on combating age barriers, was devised by IBM Belgium. Faced with the need to cut staff costs, and have decided to concentrate cuts on 5560-year-olds, IBM set up a separate company called Skill Team, which re-employed any of the early retired who wanted to go on working up to the age of 60. An employee who joined Skill Team at the age of 55 on a five-year contract would work for 58% of his time, over the full period, for 88% of his last IBM salary. The company offered services to IBM, thus allowing it to retain access to some of the intellectual capital it would otherwise have lost.
H. The best way to tempt the old to go on working may be to build on such “bridge” jobs: parttime or temporary employment that creates a more gradual transition from full-time work to retirement. Mr. Quinn, who has studied the phenomenon, finds that, in the United States, nearly half of all men and women who had been in full-time jobs in middle age moved into such “bridge” jobs at the end of their working lives. In general, it is the best-paid and worst-paid who carry on working: “There are”, he says, “two very different types of bridge job-holders - those who continue working because they have to and those who continue working because they want to, even though they could afford to retire.”
I. If the hob market grows more flexible, the old may find more jobs that suit them. Often, they will be self-employed. Sometimes, they may start their own businesses: a study by David Storey of Warwick University found that, in Britain, 70% of businesses started by people over 55 survived, compared with an average of only 19%. To coax the old back into the job market, work will not only have to pay. It will need to be more fun than touring the country in an Airstream trailer, or seeing the grandchildren, or playing golf. Only then will there be many more Joe Clarks.
Questions 1-4: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? In boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet, write:
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage
1. Insurance company Sun Life of Canada made a decision that it would hire more Canadian employees rather than British ones in order to get a fresh staff.
2. Unlike other places, employees in Japan get paid according to the years they are employed. 3. Elder workers are laid off by some German companies which are refreshing corporate culture. 4. According to Peter Hicks, companies pay older people more regardless of the contribution they make.
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Questions 5-6: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, D, E.
According to the passage, there are several advantages to hire elder people, please choose TWO from below :
A. their products are more superior to the young.
B. paid less compared with younger ones.
C. run fast when there is a meeting
D. have a better inter-person relationship
E. identify problems in an advanced time
Questions 7-8: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C, D, E.
According to Mr. Peterson, compared with elder employees, young graduates have several weaknesses in workplace, please choose TWO of them below:
A. they are not worth training.
B. their productivity is lower than counterparts.
C. they change work more often
D. their academic criteria is someway behind elders’
E. they are normally high school graduates.
Questions 9-13: Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
9. According to paragraph F, the firms and workers still hold the opinion that _____. A. older workers are more likely to attract other staff
B. people are not happy if pay gets lower in retiring age
C. older people have more retaining motivation than young people
D. young people often earn less for their piece-rates salary
10. SkillTeam that has been founded by IBM conducted which of the following movement _____. A. ask all the old worker to continue their job on former working hours basis
B. carry on the action of cutting off the elder’s proportion of employment
C. ask employees to work more hours in order to get extra pay
D. re-hire old employees and kept the salary a bit lower
11. Which of the followings is correct according to the research of Mr. Quinn _____. A. about 50% of all employees in America switched into ‘Bridge’ jobs
B. only the worst-paid continue to work
C. more men than women fell into the category of ’bridge’ work
D. some old people keep working for their motives rather than an economic incentive 12. Which of the followings is correct according to David Storey _____.
A. 70% of business is successful if hire more older people.
B. the average success of the self-employed business is getting lower.
C. self-employed elder people are more likely to survive.
D. older people’s working hours are more flexible.
13. What is the main purpose of the author in writing this passage?
A. There must be a successful retiring program for the old.
B. Older people should be correctly valued in employment.
C. Old people should offer more helping young employees grow.
D. There are more jobs in the world that only employ older people
Passage 5
Urban planning in Singapore
British merchants established a trading post in Singapore in the early nineteenth century, and for more than a century trading interests dominated. However, in 1965 the newly independent island state was cut off from its hinterland, and so it set about pursuing a survival strategy. The good international communications it already enjoyed provided a useful base, but it was decided that if Singapore was to secure its economic future, it must develop its industry. To this end, new institutional structures were needed to facilitate, develop, and control foreign investment.
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One of the most important of these was the Economic Development Board (EDB), an arm of government that developed strategies for attracting investment. Thus from the outset, the Singaporean government was involved in city promotion.
Towards the end of the twentieth century, the government realised that, due to limits on both the size of the country’s workforce and its land area, its labour-intensive industries were becoming increasingly uncompetitive. So an economic committee was established which concluded that Singapore should focus on developing as a service centre, and seek to attract company headquarters to serve South East Asia, and develop tourism, banking, and offshore activities. The land required for this service-sector orientation had been acquired in the early 1970s, when the government realised that it lacked the banking infrastructure for a modern economy. So a new banking and corporate district, known as the ‘Golden Shoe’, was planned, incorporating the historic commercial area. This district now houses all the major companies and various government financial agencies.
Singapore’s current economic strategy is closely linked to land use and development planning. Although it is already a major city, the current development plan seeks to ensure Singapore’s continued economic growth through restructuring, to ensure that the facilities needed by future business are planned now. These include transport and telecommunication infrastructure, land, and environmental quality. A major concern is to avoid congestion in the central area, and so the latest plan deviates from previous plans by having a strong decentralisation policy. The plan makes provision for four major regional centres, each serving 800,000 people, but this does not mean that the existing central business district will not also grow. A major extension planned around Marina Bay draws on examples of other ‘world cities’, especially those with waterside central areas such as Sydney and San Francisco. The project involves major land reclamation of 667 hectares in total. Part of this has already been developed as a conference and exhibition zone, and the rest will be used for other facilities. However the need for vitality has been recognised and a mixed zoning approach has been adopted, to include housing and entertainment.
One of the new features of the current plan is a broader conception of what contributes to economic success. It encompasses high quality residential provision, a good environment, leisure facilities and exciting city life. Thus there is more provision for low-density housing, often in waterfront communities linked to beaches and recreational facilities. However, the lower housing densities will put considerable pressure on the very limited land available for development, and this creates problems for another of the plan’s aims, which is to stress environmental quality. More and more of the remaining open area will be developed, and the only natural landscape surviving will be a small zone in the centre of the island which serves as a water catchment area. Environmental policy is therefore very much concerned with making the built environment more green by introducing more plants - what is referred to as the ‘beautification’ of Singapore. The plan focuses on green zones defining the boundaries of settlements, and running along transport corridors. The incidental green provision within housing areas is also given considerable attention.
Much of the environmental provision, for example golf courses, recreation areas, and beaches, is linked to the prime objective of attracting business. The plan places much emphasis on good leisure provision and the need to exploit Singapore’s island setting. One way of doing this is through further land reclamation, to create a whole new island devoted to leisure and luxury
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housing which will stretch from the central area to the airport. A current concern also appears to be how to use the planning system to create opportunities for greater spontaneity: planners have recently given much attention to the concept of the 24-hour city and the cafe society. For example, a promotion has taken place along the Singapore river to create a cafe zone. This has included the realisation, rather late in the day, of the value of retaining older buildings, and the creation of a continuous riverside promenade. Since the relaxation in 1996 of strict guidelines on outdoor eating areas, this has become an extremely popular area in the evenings. Also, in 1998 the Urban Redevelopment Authority created a new entertainment area in the centre of the city which they are promoting as ‘the city’s one-stop, dynamic entertainment scene’.
In conclusion, the economic development of Singapore has been very consciously centrally planned, and the latest strategy is very clearly oriented to establishing Singapore as a leading ‘world city’. It is well placed to succeed, for a variety of reasons. It can draw upon its historic roots as a world trading centre; it has invested heavily in telecommunications and air transport infrastructure; it is well located in relation to other Asian economies; it has developed a safe and clean environment; and it has utilised the international language of English.
Questions 1-6: Complete the summary below using words from the box.
decentralisation fuel industry agriculture hospitals loans deregulation service trade transport entertainment recycling labour tourism hygiene beautification
Singapore
When Singapore became an independent, self-sufficient state it decided to build up its (1)…………………………, and government organisations were created to support this policy. However, this initial plan met with limited success due to a shortage of (2)………………………… and land. It was therefore decided to develop the (3)………………………… sector of the economy instead.
Singapore is now a leading city, but planners are working to ensure that its economy continues to grow. In contrast to previous policies, there is emphasis on (4)………………………… In addition, land will be recovered to extend the financial district, and provide (5)………………………… as well as housing. The government also plans to improve the quality of Singapore's environment, but due to the shortage of natural landscapes it will concentrate instead on what it calls (6)…………………………
Questions 7-13: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Write: TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
7. After 1965, the Singaporean government switched the focus of the island's economy. 8. The creation of Singapore's financial centre was delayed while a suitable site was found. 9. Singapore's four regional centres will eventually be the same size as its central business district. 10. Planners have modelled new urban developments on other coastal cities.
11. Plants and trees are amongst the current priorities for Singapore's city planners. 12. The government has enacted new laws to protect Singapore's old buildings. 13. Singapore will find it difficult to compete with leading cities in other parts of the world.
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Passage 6
Wealth in a cold climate
A. Dr William Masters was reading a book about mosquitoes when inspiration struck. “There was this anecdote about the great yellow fever epidemic that hit Philadelphia in 1793,” Masters recalls. “This epidemic decimated the city until the first frost came.” The inclement weather froze out the insects, allowing Philadelphia to recover.
B. If weather could be the key to a city’s fortunes, Masters thought, then why not to the historical fortunes of nations? And could frost lie at the heart of one of the most enduring economic mysteries of all – why are almost all the wealthy, industrialised nations to be found at latitudes above 40 degrees? After two years of research, he thinks that he has found a piece of the puzzle. Masters, an agricultural economist from Purdue University in Indiana, and Margaret McMillan at Tufts University, Boston, show that annual frosts are among the factors that distinguish rich nations from poor ones. Their study is published this month in the Journal of Economic Growth. The pair speculates that cold snaps have two main benefits – they freeze pests that would otherwise destroy crops, and also freeze organisms, such as mosquitoes, that carry disease. The result is agricultural abundance a big workforce.
C. The academics took two sets of information. The first was average income for countries, the second climate data from the University of East Anglia. They found a curious tally between the sets. Countries having five or more frosty days a month are uniformly rich; those with fewer than five are impoverished. The authors speculate that the five-day figure is important; it could be the minimum time needed to kill pests in the soil. Masters says: “For example, Finland is a small country that is growing quickly, but Bolivia is a small country that isn’t growing at all. Perhaps climate has something to do with that.” In fact, limited frosts bring huge benefits to farmers. The chills kill insects or render them inactive; cold weather slows the break-up of plant and animal material in the soil, allowing it to become richer; and frosts ensure a build-up of moisture in the ground for spring, reducing dependence on seasonal rains. There are exceptions to the “cold equals rich” argument. There are well-heeled tropical countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore (both city-states, Masters notes), a result of their superior trading positions. Likewise, not all European countries axe moneyed – in the former communist colonies, economic potential was crushed by politics.
D. Masters stresses that climate will never be the overriding factor – the wealth of nations is too complicated to be attributable to just one factor. Climate, he feels, somehow combines with other factors – such as the presence of institutions, including governments, and access to trading routes – to determine whether a country will do well. Traditionally, Masters says, economists thought that institutions had the biggest effect on the economy, because they brought order to a country in the form of, for example, laws and property rights. With order, so the thinking went, came affluence. “But there are some problems that even countries with institutions have not been able to get around,” he says. “My feeling is that, as countries get richer, they get better institutions. And the accumulation of wealth and improvement in governing institutions are both helped by a favourable environment, including climate.”
E. This does not mean, he insists, that tropical countries are beyond economic help and destined to remain penniless. Instead, richer countries should change the way in which foreign aid is given. Instead of aid being geared towards improving governance, it should be spent on technology to improve agriculture and to combat disease. Masters cites one example: “There are regions in India that have been provided with irrigation – agricultural productivity has gone up and there has been an improvement in health.” Supplying vaccines against tropical diseases and developing crop varieties that can grow in the tropics would break the poverty cycle.
F. Other minds have applied themselves to the split between poor and rich nations, citing anthropological, climatic and zoological reasons for why temperate nations are the most affluent. In 350BC, Aristotle observed that “those who live in a cold climate... are full of spirit”. Jared Diamond,
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from the University of California at Los Angeles, pointed out in his book Guns, Germs and Steel that Eurasia is broadly aligned east-west, while Africa and the Americas are aligned north-south. So, in Europe, crops can spread quickly across latitudes because climates are similar. One of the first domesticated crops, einkorn wheat, spread quickly from the Middle East into Europe; it took twice as long for corn to spread from Mexico to what is now the eastern United States. This easy movement along similar latitudes in Eurasia would also have meant a faster dissemination of other technologies such as the wheel and writing, Diamond speculates. The region also boasted domesticated livestock, which could provide meat, wool and motive power in the fields. Blessed with such natural advantages, Eurasia was bound to take off economically.
G. John Gallup and Jeffrey Sachs, two US economists, have also pointed out striking correlations between the geographical location of countries and their wealth. They note that tropical countries between 23.45 degrees north and south of the equator are nearly all poor. In an article for the Harvard International Review, they concluded that “development surely seems to favour the temperate-zone economies, especially those in the northern hemisphere, and those that have managed to avoid both socialism and the ravages of war”. But Masters cautions against geographical determinism, the idea that tropical countries are beyond hope: “Human health and agriculture can be made better through scientific and technological research,” he says, “so we shouldn’t be writing off these countries. Take Singapore: without air conditioning, it wouldn’t be rich.”
Questions 1-7: The reading passage has seven paragraphs, A-G. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-G from the list below.
Questions 8-13: Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of the passage. Using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Dr William Master read a book saying that a (an) (1)………………………… which struck an American city of years ago was terminated by a cold frost. And academics found that there is a connection between climate and country’s wealthy as in the rich but small country of (2)…………………………. Yet besides excellent surroundings and climate, one country still need to improve both their (3)………………………… to achieve long prosperity, Thanks to resembling weather condition across latitude in the continent of (4)…………………………, crops such as (5)………………………… is bound to spread faster than from South America to the North. Other researchers also noted that even though geographical factors are important, a tropical country such as (6)………………………… still became rich due to scientific advancement.
Passage 7
Environmental medicine
- also called conservation medicine, ecological medicine, or medical geology - A. In simple terms, environmental medicine deals with the interaction between human and animal health
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and the environment. It concerns the adverse reactions that people have on contact with or exposure to an environmental excitant. Ecological health is its primary concern, especially emerging infectious diseases and pathogens from insects, plants and vertebrate animals.
B. Practitioners of environmental medicine work in teams involving many other specialists. As well as doctors, clinicians and medical researchers, there may be marine and climate biologists, toxicologists, veterinarians, geospatial and landscape analysts, even political scientists and economists. This is a very broad approach to the rather simple concept that there are causes for all illnesses, and that what we eat and drink or encounter in our surroundings has a direct impact on our health.
C. Central to environmental medicine is the total load theory developed by the clinical ecologist Theron Randolph, who postulated that illness occurs when the body’s ability to detoxify environmental excitants has reached its capacity. His wide-ranging perception of what makes up those stimuli includes chemical, physical, biological and psychosocial factors. If a person with numerous and/or chronic exposures to environmental chemicals suffers a psychological upset, for example, this could overburden his immune system and result in actual physical illness. In other words, disease is the product of multiple factors.
D. Another Randolph concept is that of individual susceptibility or the variability in the response of individuals to toxic agents. Individuals may be susceptible to any number of excitants but those exposed to the same risk factors do not necessarily develop the same disease, due in large part to genetic predisposition; however, age, gender, nutrition, emotional or physical stress, as well as the particular infectious agents or chemicals and intensity of exposure, all contribute.
E. Adaptation is defined as the ability of an organism to adjust to gradually changing circumstances of its existence, to survive and be successful in a particular environment. Dr Randolph suggested that our bodies, designed for the Stone Age, have not quite caught up with the modern age and consequently, many people suffer diseases from maladaptation, or an inability to deal with some of the new substances that are now part of our environment. He asserted that this could cause exhaustion, irritability, depression, confusion and behavioural problems in children. Numerous traditional medical practitioners, however, are very sceptical of these assertions.
F. Looking at the environment and health together is a way of making distant and nebulous notions, such as global warming, more immediate and important. Even a slight rise in temperature, which the world is already experiencing, has immediate effects. Mosquitoes can expand their range and feed on different migratory birds than usual, resulting in these birds transferring a disease into other countries. Suburban sprawl is seen as more than a socioeconomic problem for it brings an immediate imbalance to the rural ecosystem, increasing population density so people come into closer contact with disease
carrying rodents or other animals. Deforestation also displaces feral animals that may then infect domesticated animals, which enter the food chain and transmit the disease to people. These kinds of connections are fundamental to environmental medicine and the threat of zoonotic disease looms larger.
G. Zoonoses, diseases of animals transmissible to humans, are a huge concern. Different types of pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites, cause zoonoses. Every year, millions of people worldwide get sick because of foodborne bacteria such as salmonella and campylobacter, which cause fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Tens of thousands of people die from the rabies virus after being bitten by rabid animals like dogs and bats. Viral zoonoses like avian influenza (bird flu), swine flu (H1N1 virus) and Ebola are on the increase with more frequent, often uncontainable, outbreaks. Some animals (particularly domestic pets) pass on fungal infections to humans. Parasitic infection usually occurs when people come into contact with food or water contaminated by animals that are infected with parasites like cryptosporidium, trichinella, or worms.
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H. As the human population of the planet increases, encroaching further on animal domains and causing ecological change, inter-professional cooperation is crucial to meet the challenges of dealing with the effects of climate change, emergent cross-species pathogens, rising toxicity in air, water and soil, and uncontrolled development and urbanisation. This can only happen if additional government funds are channelled into the study and practice of environmental medicine.
Questions 1-6: Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs, A-H. Which paragraph contains the following information?
1. an explanation of how population expansion exposes humans to disease
2. the idea that each person can react differently to the same risk factors
3. types of disease-causing agents that move between species
4. examples of professionals working in the sphere of environmental medicine 5. a definition of environmental medicine
6. how ill health results from an accumulation of environmental stressors
Questions 7-13: Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
7. According to Dr Randolph, people get sick because of ……………………….. – in other words, a failure to adjust to the modern environment.
8. Vague, far-off concepts like global warming are made more urgent when ……………………….. are studied together.
9. Rising temperatures result in more widespread distribution of disease because some insects are able to ………………………..
10. Large-scale removal of trees forces wildlife from their habitat and brings them into contact With ………………………..
11. Uncontrollable ……………………….. of zoonotic viruses are becoming more numerous. 12. Collaboration between many disciplines is needed to confront the problems of urban development, pollution, ……………………….. and new pathogens.
13. Environmental medicine should receive more ……………………….. to help it meet future demands.
Passage 8
FAIR GAMES?
For seventeen days every four years the world is briefly arrested by the captivating, dizzying spectacle of athleticism, ambition, pride and celebration on display at the Summer Olympic Games. After the last weary spectators and competitors have returned home, however, host cities are often left awash in high debts and costly infrastructure maintenance. The staggering expenses involved in a successful Olympic bid are often assumed to be easily mitigated by tourist revenues and an increase in local employment, but more often than not host cities are short changed and their taxpayers for generations to come are left settling the debt.
Olympic extravagances begin with the application process. Bidding alone will set most cities back about $20 million, and while officially bidding only takes two years (for cities that make the shortlist), most cities can expect to exhaust a decade working on their bid from the moment it is initiated to the announcement of voting results from International Olympic Committee members. Aside from the financial costs of the bid alone, the process ties up real estate in prized urban locations until the outcome is known. This can cost local economies millions of dollars of lost revenue from private developers who could have made use of the land, and can also mean that particular urban quarters lose their vitality due to the vacant lots. All of this can be for nothing if a bidding city does not appease the whims of IOC members - private connections and opinions on government conduct often hold sway (Chicago’s 2012 bid is thought to have been undercut by tensions over U.S. foreign policy).
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Bidding costs do not compare, however, to the exorbitant bills that come with hosting the Olympic Games themselves. As is typical with large-scale, one-off projects, budgeting for the Olympics is a notoriously formidable task. Los Angelinos have only recently finished paying off their budget-breaking 1984 Olympics; Montreal is still in debt for its 1976 Games (to add insult to injury, Canada is the only host country to have failed to win a single gold medal during its own Olympics). The tradition of runaway expenses has persisted in recent years. London Olympics managers have admitted that their 2012 costs may increase ten times over their initial projections, leaving tax payers 20 billion pounds in the red.
Hosting the Olympics is often understood to be an excellent way to update a city’s sporting infrastructure. The extensive demands of Olympic sports include aquatic complexes, equestrian circuits, shooting ranges, beach volleyball courts, and, of course, an 80,000 seat athletic stadium. Yet these demands are typically only necessary to accommodate a brief influx of athletes from around the world. Despite the enthusiasm many populations initially have for the development of world-class sporting complexes in their home towns, these complexes typically fall into disuse after the Olympic fervour has waned. Even Australia, home to one of the world’s most sportive populations, has left its taxpayers footing a $32 million-a-year bill for the maintenance of vacant facilities.
Another major concern is that when civic infrastructure developments are undertaken in preparation for hosting the Olympics, these benefits accrue to a single metropolitan centre (with the exception of some outlying areas that may get some revamped sports facilities). In countries with an expansive land mass, this means vast swathes of the population miss out entirely. Furthermore, since the International Olympic Committee favours prosperous “global” centres (the United Kingdom was told, after three failed bids from its provincial cities, that only London stood any real chance at winning), the improvement of public transport, roads and communication links tends to concentrate in places already well-equipped with world-class infrastructures. Perpetually by-passing minor cities create a cycle of disenfranchisement: these cities never get an injection of capital, they fail to become first-rate candidates, and they are constantly passed over in favour of more secure choices.
Finally, there is no guarantee that the Olympics will be a popular success. The “feel good” factor that most proponents of Olympic bids extol (and that was no doubt driving the 90 to 100 per cent approval rates of Parisians and Londoners for their cities’ respective 2012 bids) can be an elusive phenomenon, and one that is tied to that nation’s standing on the medal tables. This ephemeral thrill cannot compare to the years of disruptive construction projects and security fears that go into preparing for an Olympic Games, nor the decades of debt repayment that follow (Greece’s preparation for Athens 2004 famously deterred tourists from visiting the country due to widespread unease about congestion and disruption).
There are feasible alternatives to the bloat, extravagance and wasteful spending that comes with a modern Olympic Games. One option is to designate a permanent host city that would be redesigned or built from scratch especially for the task. Another is to extend the duration of the Olympics so that it becomes a festival of several months. Local businesses would enjoy the extra spending and congestion would ease substantially as competitors and spectators come and go according to their specific interests. Neither the “Olympic City” nor the extended length options really get to the heart of the issue, however. Stripping away ritual and decorum in favour of concentrating on athletic rivalry would be preferable.
Failing that, the Olympics could simply be scrapped altogether. International competition could still be maintained through world championships in each discipline. Most of these events are already held on non-Olympic years anyway - the International Association of Athletics Federations, for example, has run a biennial World Athletics Championship since 1983 after members decided that using the Olympics for their championship was no longer sufficient. Events of this nature keep world-class competition alive without requiring Olympic-sized expenses.
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Questions 1-5. Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-K, below. 1. Bids to become a host city ______
2. Personal relationships and political tensions ______
3. Cost estimates for the Olympic Games ______
4. Purpose-built sporting venues ______
5. Urban developments associated with the Olympics ______
A. often help smaller cities to develop basic infrastructure.
B. tend to occur in areas where they are least needed.
C. require profitable companies to be put out of business.
D. are often never used again once the Games are over.
E. can take up to ten years to complete.
F. also satisfy needs of local citizens for first-rate sports facilities.
G. is usually only successful when it is from a capital city.
H. are closely related to how people feel emotionally about the Olympics.
I. are known for being very inaccurate.
J. often underlie the decisions of International Olympic Committee members.
K. are holding back efforts to reform the Olympics.
Questions 6-12: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Write: TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
6. Residents of host cities have little use for the full range of Olympic facilities. 7. Australians have still not paid for the construction of Olympic sports facilities. 8. People far beyond the host city can expect to benefit from improved infrastructure. 9. It is difficult for small cities to win an Olympic bid.
10. When a city makes an Olympic bid, a majority of its citizens usually want it to win. 11. Whether or not people enjoy hosting the Olympics in their city depends on how athletes from their country perform in Olympic events.
12. Fewer people than normal visited Greece during the run up to the Athens Olympics.
Questions 13 and 14: Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Which TWO of the following does the author propose as alternatives to the current Olympics? A. The Olympics should be cancelled in favour of individual competitions for each sport. B. The Olympics should focus on ceremony rather than competition.
C. The Olympics should be held in the same city every time.
D. The Olympics should be held over a month rather than seventeen days.
E. The Olympics should be made smaller by getting rid of unnecessary and unpopular sports.
Passage 9
Television and Sport
when the medium becomes the stadium
A. The relationship between television and sports is not widely thought of as problematic. For many people, television is a simple medium through which sports can be played, replayed, slowed down, and of course conveniently transmitted live to homes across the planet. What is often overlooked, however, is how television networks have reshaped the very foundations of an industry that they claim only to document. Major television stations immediately seized the revenue-generating prospects of televising sports and this has changed everything, from how they are played to who has a chance to watch them.
B. Before television, for example, live matches could only be viewed in person. For the majority of fans, who were unable to afford tickets to the top-flight matches, or to travel the long distances required
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to see them, the only option was to attend a local game instead, where the stakes were much lower. As a result, thriving social networks and sporting communities formed around the efforts of teams in the third and fourth divisions and below. With the advent of live TV, however, premier matches suddenly became affordable and accessible to hundreds of millions of new viewers. This shift in viewing patterns vacuumed out the support base of local clubs, many of which ultimately folded.
C. For those on the more prosperous side of this shift in viewing behaviour, however, the financial rewards are substantial. Television assisted in derailing long-held concerns in many sports about whether athletes should remain amateurs or ‘go pro’, and replaced this system with a new paradigm where nearly all athletes are free to pursue stardom and to make money from their sporting prowess. For the last few decades, top-level sports men and women have signed lucrative endorsement deals and sponsorship contracts, turning many into multi-millionaires and also allowing them to focus full-time on what really drives them. That they can do all this without harming their prospects at the Olympic Games and other major competitions is a significant benefit for these athletes.
D. The effects of television extend further, however, and in many instances have led to changes in sporting codes themselves. Prior to televised coverage of the Winter Olympics, for example, figure skating involved a component in which skaters drew ‘figures’ in the ice, which were later evaluated for the precision of their shapes. This component translated poorly to the small screen, as viewers found the whole procedure, including the judging of minute scratches on ice, to be monotonous and dull. Ultimately, figures were scrapped in favour of a short programme featuring more telegenic twists and jumps. Other sports are awash with similar regulatory shifts – passing the ball back to the goalkeeper was banned in football after gameplay at the 1990 World Cup was deemed overly defensive by television viewers.
E. In addition to insinuating changes into sporting regulation, television also tends to favour some individual sports over others. Some events, such as the Tour de France, appear to benefit: on television it can be viewed in its entirety, whereas on-site enthusiasts will only witness a tiny part of the spectacle. Wrestling, perhaps due to an image problem that repelled younger (and highly prized) television viewers, was scheduled for removal from the 2020 Olympic Games despite being a founding sport and a fixture of the Olympics since 708 BC. Only after a fervent outcry from supporters was that decision overturned.
F. Another change in the sporting landscape that television has triggered is the framing of sports not merely in terms of the level of skill and athleticism involved, but as personal narratives of triumph, shame and redemption on the part of individual competitors. This is made easier and more convincing through the power of close-up camera shots, profiles and commentary shown during extended build
ups to live events. It also attracts television audiences – particularly women - who may be less interested in the intricacies of the sport than they are in broader ‘human interest’ stories. As a result, many viewers are now more familiar with the private agonies of famous athletes than with their record scores or matchday tactics.
G. And what about the effects of male television viewership? Certainly, men have always been willing to watch male athletes at the top of their game, but female athletes participating in the same sports have typically attracted far less interest and, as a result, have suffered greatly reduced exposure on television. Those sports where women can draw the crowds – beach volleyball, for example – are often those where female participants are encouraged to dress and behave in ways oriented specifically toward a male demographic.
H. Does all this suggest the influence of television on sports has been overwhelmingly negative? The answer will almost certainly depend on who among the various stakeholders is asked. For all those who have lost out – lower-league teams, athletes whose sports lack a certain visual appeal – there are numerous others who have benefitted enormously from the partnership between television and sports,
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and whose livelihoods now depend on it.
Questions 1-7: The passage has eight paragraphs, A-H. Choose the correct heading for paragraphs A-H from the list of headings below.
Questions 8-11: Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the passage? Write: YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
8. Television networks were slow to recognise opportunities to make money from televised sport. 9. The average sports fan travelled a long way to watch matches before live television broadcasts. 10. Television has reduced the significance of an athlete’s amateur status.
11. The best athletes are now more interested in financial success rather than sporting achievement.
Questions 12-14: Complete the notes below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Effect of television on individual sports
• Ice skating - viewers find ‘figures’ boring so they are replaced with a (12)…………………. • Back-passing banned in football.
• Tour de France great for TV, but wrestling initially dropped from Olympic Games due to (13)………………….
• Beach volleyball aimed at (14)…………………
Passage 10
Motivating Drives
Scientists have been researching the way to get employees motivated for many years. This research is a relational study which builds the fundamental and comprehensive model for study. This is especially true when the business goal is to turn unmotivated teams into productive ones. But their researchers have limitations. It is like studying the movements of car without taking out the engine.
Motivation is what drives people to succeed and plays a vital role in enhancing an organizational development. It is important to study the motivation of employees because it is related to the emotion and behavior of employees. Recent studies show there are four drives for motivation. They are the drive to acquire, the drive to bond, the drive to comprehend and the drive to defend.
The Drive to Acquire
The drive to acquire must be met to optimize the acquire aspect as well as the achievement element. Thus the way that outstanding performance is recognized, the type of perks that is provided to polish the career path. But sometimes a written letter of appreciation generates more motivation than a
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thousand dollar check, which can serve as the invisible power to boost business engagement. Successful organizations and leaders not only need to focus on the optimization of physical reward but also on moving other levers within the organization that can drive motivation.
The Drive to Bond
The drive to bond is also key to driving motivation. There are many kinds of bonds between people, like friendship, family. In company, employees also want to be an essential part of company. They want to belong to the company. Employees will be motivated if they find personal belonging to the company. In the meantime, the most commitment will be achieved by the employee on condition that the force of motivation within the employee affects the direction, intensity and persistence of decision and behavior in company.
The Drive to Comprehend
The drive to comprehend motivates many employees to higher performance. For years, it has been known that setting stretch goals can greatly impact performance. Organizations need to ensure that the various job roles provide employees with simulation that challenges them or allow them to grow. Employees don’t want to do meaningless things or monotonous job. If the job didn’t provide them with personal meaning and fulfillment, they will leave the company.
The Drive to Defend
The drive to defend is often the hardest lever to pull. This drive manifests itself as a quest to create and promote justice, fairness, and the ability to express ourselves freely. The organizational lever for this basic human motivator is resource allocation. This drive is also met through an employee feeling connection to a company. If their companies are merged with another, they will show worries.
Two studies have been done to find the relations between the four drives and motivation. The article based on two studies was finally published in Harvard Business Review. Most authors’ arguments have laid emphasis on four-drive theory and actual investigations. Using the results of the surveys which executed with employees from Fortune 500 companies and other two global businesses (P company and H company), the article mentions about how independent drives influence employees’ behavior and how organizational levers boost employee motivation.
The studies show that the drive to bond is most related to fulfilling commitment, while the drive to comprehend is most related to how much effort employees spend on works. The drive to acquire can be satisfied by a rewarding system which ties rewards to performances, and gives the best people opportunities for advancement. For drive to defend, a study on the merging of P company and H company shows that employees in former company show an unusual cooperating attitude.
The key to successfully motivate employees is to meet all drives. Each of these drives is important if we are to understand employee motivation. These four drives, while not necessarily the only human drives, are the ones that are central to unified understanding of modern human life.
Questions 1-5: Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
1. According to the passage, what are we told about the study of motivation?
A. The theory of motivating employees is starting to catch attention in organizations in recent years. B. It is very important for managers to know how to motivate their subordinates because it is related to the salary of employees.
C. Researchers have tended to be too theoretical to their study.
D. The goal of employee motivation is to increase the profit of organizations.
2. What can be inferred from the passage about the study of people’s drives?
A. Satisfying employees’ drives can positively lead to the change of behavior. B. Satisfying employees’ drives will negatively affect their emotions.
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C. Satisfying employees’ drives can increase companies’ productions.
D. Satisfying employees’ drives will result in employees’ outstanding performance. 3. According to paragraph three, in order to optimize employees’ performance, are needed. A. Drive to acquire and achievement element
B. Outstanding performance and recognition
C. Career fulfillment and a thousand dollar check
D. Financial incentive and recognition
4. According to paragraph five, how does “the drive to comprehend” help employees perform better? A. It can help employees better understand the development of their organizations. B. It can help employees feel their task is meaningful to their companies.
C. It can help employees set higher goals.
D. It can provide employees with repetitive tasks.
5. According to paragraph six, which of following is true about “drive to defend”? A. Organizational resource is the most difficult to allocate.
B. It is more difficult to implement than the drive to comprehend.
C. Employees think it is very important to voice their own opinions.
D. Employees think it is very important to connect with a merged corporation.
Questions 6-8: Choose THREE letters, A-F. Which THREE of the following statements are true? A. Employees will be motivated if they feel belonged to the company.
B. If employees get an opportunity of training and development program, their motivation will be enhanced.
C. If employees’ working goals are complied with organizational objectives, their motivation will be reinforced.
D. If employees’ motivation is very low, companies should find a way to increase their salary as their first priority.
E. If employees find their work lacking challenging, they will leave the company. F. Employees will worry if their company is sold.
Questions 9-14: Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the passage. Write: YES if the statement agree with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
9. Increasing pay can lead to the high work motivation.
10. Local companies benefit more from global companies through the study.
11. Employees achieve the most commitment if their drive to comprehend is met. 12. The employees in former company presented unusual attitude toward the merging of two companies. 13. The two studies are done to analyze the relationship between the natural drives and the attitude of employees.
14. Rewarding system cause the company to lose profit.
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PART 2
Passage 1
Living in a Dream World
Daydreaming can help solve problems, trigger creativity, and inspire great works of art and science. By Josie Glazier.
Most people spend between 30 and 47 per cent of their waking hours spacing out, drifting off, lost in thought, wool-gathering or building castles in the air. Yale University emeritus psychology professor Jerome L. Singer defines daydreaming as shifting attention “away from some primary physical or mental task toward an unfolding sequence of private responses” or, more simply, “watching your own mental videos.” He also divides daydreaming styles into two main categories: “ positive-constructive,” which includes upbeat and imaginative thoughts, and “dysphoric,” which encompasses visions of failure or punishment.
Such humdrum concerns figured prominently in one study that rigorously measured how much time we spend mind wandering in daily life. In a 2009 study, Kane and his colleague Jennifer McVay asked 72 students to carry Palm Pilots that beeped at random intervals eight times a day for a week. The subjects then recorded their thoughts at that moment on a questionnaire. The study found that about 30 per cent of the beeps coincided with thoughts unrelated to the task at hand and that mind-wandering increased with stress, boredom or sleepiness or in chaotic environments and decreased with enjoyable tasks. That may be because enjoyable activities tend to grab our attention.
We may not even be aware that we are daydreaming. We have all had the experience of “reading” a book yet absorbing nothing—moving our eyes over the words on a page as our attention wanders and the text turns into gibberish. “When this happens, people lack what I call ‘meta-awareness,’ consciousness of what is currently going on in their mind,” he says. But aimless rambling can be productive as they can allow us to stumble on ideas and associations that we may never find if we intentionally seek them.
So, why should daydreaming aid creativity? It may be in part because when the brain is floating in unfocused mental space it serves a specific purpose. It allows us to engage in one task and at the same time trigger reminders of other, concurrent goals so that we do not lose sight of them. There is also the belief that we can boost the creative process by increasing the amount of daydreaming we do or replaying variants of the millions of events we store in our brains.
The mind's freedom to wander during a deliberate tuning out could also explain the flash of insight that may coincide with taking a break from an unsolved problem. A study conducted at the University of Lancaster in England into this possibility found that if we allow our minds to ramble during a moderately challenging task, we can access ideas that are not easily available to our conscious minds. Our ability to do so is now known to depend on the normal functioning of a dedicated daydreaming network deep in our brain.
It was not until 2007, however, that cognitive psychologist Malia Fox Mason, discovered that the default network – which lights up when people switch from an attention-demanding activity to drifting reveries with no specific goals, becomes more active when mind wandering is more likely. She also discovered
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that people who daydream more in everyday life show greater activity in the default network while performing monotonous tasks.
The conclusion reached in this ground-breaking study was that the more complex the mind wandering episode is, the more of the mind it is going to consume. This inevitably leads to the problem of determining the point at which creative daydreaming crosses the boundary into the realms of compulsive fantasising. Although there is often a fine dividing line between the two, one question that can help resolve the dilemma relates to whether the benefits gained from daydreaming outweigh the cost to the daydreamer’s reputation and performance.
On the other hand, there are psychologists who feel that the boundary is not so easily defined. They argue that mind wandering is not inherently good or bad as it depends to a great extent on context. When, for example, daydreaming occurs during an activity that requires little concentration, it is unlikely to be costly. If, however, it causes someone to suffer severe injury or worse by say, walking into traffic, then the line has been crossed.
The missing paragraphs:
A. Although these two findings were significant, mind wandering itself was not measured during the scans. As a result, it could not be determined exactly when the participants in her study were “on task” and when they were daydreaming. In 2009 Smallwood, Schooler and Kalina Christoff of the University of British Columbia published the first study to directly link mind wandering with increased activity in the default network. Scans on the participants in their study revealed activity in the default network was strongest when subjects were unaware they had lost focus.
B. However, intense focus on our problems may not always lead to immediate solutions. Instead allowing the mind to float freely can enable us to access unconscious ideas hovering underneath the surface – a process that can lead to creative insight, according to psychologist Jonathan W. Schooler of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
C. Yet to enhance creativity, it is important to pay attention to daydreams. Schooler calls this “tuning out” or deliberate “off-task thinking.”, terms that refer to the ability of an individual to have more than just the mind-wandering process. Those who are most creative also need to have meta-awareness to realise when a creative idea has popped into their mind.
D. On the other hand, those who ruminate obsessively – rehashing past events, repetitively analyzing their causes and consequences, or worrying about all the ways things could go wrong in the future – are well aware that their thoughts are their own, but they have intense difficulty turning them off. The late Yale psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema does not believe that rumination is a form of daydreaming, but she has found that in obsessive ruminators, the same default network as the one that is activated during daydreaming switches on.
E. Other scientists distinguish between mundane musings and extravagant fantasies. Michael Kane, a cognitive psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, considers “mind wandering” to be “any thoughts that are unrelated to one's task at hand.” In his view, mind wandering is a broad category that may include everything from pondering ingredients for a dinner recipe to saving the planet from alien invasion. Most of the time when people fall into mind-wandering, they are thinking about everyday concerns, such as recent encounters and items on their to-do list.
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F. According to Schooler, there are two steps you need to take to make the distinction. First, notice whether you are deriving any useful insights from your fantasies. Second, it is important to take stock of the content of your daydreams. To distinguish between beneficial and pathological imaginings, he adds, “Ask yourself if this is something useful, helpful, valuable, pleasant, or am I just rehashing the same old perseverative thoughts over and over again?” And if daydreaming feels out of control, then even if it is pleasant it is probably not useful or valuable.
G. Artists and scientists are well acquainted with such playful fantasizing. Filmmaker Tim Burton daydreamed his way to Hollywood success, spending his childhood holed up in his bedroom, creating posters for an imaginary horror film series. Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, imagined “another world,” to which he retreated as a child, Albert Einstein pictured himself running along a light wave – a reverie that led to his theory of special relativity.
H. Like Facebook for the brain, the default network is a bustling web of memories and streaming movies, starring ourselves. “When we daydream, we're at the center of the universe,” says neurologist Marcus Raichle of Washington University in St. Louis, who first described the network in 2001. It consists of three main regions that help us imagine ourselves and the thoughts and feelings of others, draw personal memories from the brain and access episodic memories.
Passage 2
HELP GUIDE US THROUGH THE UNIVERSE
Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, launches this year's Young Science Writer competition If you ask scientists what they're doing, the answer won't be 'Finding the origin of the universe', 'Seeking the cure for cancer' or suchlike. It will involve something very specialised, a small piece of the jigsaw that builds up the big picture.
So, unless they are cranks or geniuses, scientists don't shoot directly for a grand goal – they focus on bite-sized problems that seem timely and tractable. But this strategy (though prudent) carries an occupational risk: they may forget they're wearing blinkers and fail to see their own work in its proper perspective.
I would personally derive far less satisfaction from my research if it interested only a few other academics. But presenting one's work to non-specialists isn't easy. We scientists often do it badly, although the experience helps us to see our work in a broader context. Journalists can do it better, and their efforts can put a key discovery in perspective, converting an arcane paper published in an obscure journal into a tale that can inspire others.
On such occasions, people often raise general concerns about the way science is going and the impact it may have; they wonder whether taxpayers get value for money from the research they support. More intellectual audiences wonder about the basic nature of science: how objective can we be? And how creative? Is science genuinely a progressive enterprise? What are its limits and are we anywhere near them? It is hard to explain, in simple language, even a scientific concept that you understand well. My own (not always effective) attempts have deepened my respect for science reporters, who have to assimilate quickly, with a looming deadline, a topic they may be quite unfamiliar with.
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It's unusual for science to earn newspaper headlines. Coverage that has to be restricted to crisp newsworthy breakthroughs in any case distorts the way science develops. Scientific advances are usually gradual and cumulative, and better suited to feature articles, or documentaries – or even books, for which the latent demand is surprisingly strong. For example, millions bought A Brief History of Time, which caught the public imagination.
Nevertheless, serious hooks do find a ready market. That's the good news for anyone who wants to enter this competition. But books on pyramidology, visitations by aliens, and suchlike do even better: a symptom of a fascination with the paranormal and 'New Age' concepts. It is depressing that these are often featured uncritically in the media, distracting attention from more genuine advances.
Most scientists are quite ordinary, and their lives unremarkable. But occasionally they exemplify the link between genius and madness; these 'eccentrics' are more enticing biographees.
There seems, gratifyingly, to be no single 'formula' for science writing - many themes are still under exploited. Turning out even 700 words seems a daunting task if you're faced with a clean sheet of paper or a blank screen, but less so if you have done enough reading and interviewing on a subject to become inspired. For research students who enter the competition, science (and how you do it) is probably more interesting than personal autobiography. But if, in later life, you become both brilliant and crazy, you can hope that someone else writes a best-seller about you.
The missing paragraphs:
A. However, over-sensational claims are a hazard for them. Some researchers themselves 'hype up' new discoveries to attract press interest. Maybe it matters little what people believe about Darwinism or cosmology. But we should be more concerned that misleading or over-confident claims on any topic of practical import don't gain wide currency. Hopes of miracle cures can be raised; risks can be either exaggerated, or else glossed over for commercial pressures. Science popularisers perhaps even those who enter this competition - have to be as skeptical of some scientific claims as journalists routinely are of politicians.
B. Despite this there's a tendency in recent science waiting to be chatty, laced with gossip and biographical detail. But are scientists as interesting as their science? The lives of Albert Einstein and Richard Feyman are of interest, but is that true of the routine practitioner?
C. Two mathematicians have been treated as such in recent books: Paul Erdos, the obsessive itinerant Hungarian (who described himself as 'a machine for turning coffee into theorems') and John Nash, a pioneer of game theory, who resurfaced in his sixties, after 30 years of insanity, to receive a Nobel prize.
D. For example, the American physicist Robert Wilson spent months carrying out meticulous measurements with a microwave antenna which eventually revealed the 'afterglow of creation' - the 'echo' of the Big Bang with which our universe began. Wilson was one of the rare scientists with the luck and talent to make a really great discovery, but afterwards he acknowledged that its importance didn't sink in until he read a 'popular' description of it in the New York Times.
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E. More surprising was the commercial success of Sir Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind. This is a fascinating romp through Penrose's eclectic enthusiasms - enjoyable and enlightening. But it was a surprising best seller, as much of it is heavy going. The sates pitch 'great scientist says mind is more than a mere machine' was plainly alluring. Many who bought it must have got a nasty surprise when they opened it.
F. But if they have judged right, it won't be a trivial problem - indeed it will be the most difficult that they are likely to make progress on. The great zoologist Sir Peter Medawar famously described scientific work as 'the art of the soluble'. 'Scientists,' he wrote, 'get no credit for failing to solve a problem beyond their capacities. They earn at best the kindly contempt reserved for utopian politicians.'
G. This may be because, for non-specialists, it is tricky to demarcate well-based ideas from flaky speculation. But its crucially important not to blur this distinction when writing articles for a general readership. Otherwise credulous readers may take too much on trust, whereas hardnosed skeptics may reject all scientific claims, without appreciating that some have firm empirical support.
H. Such a possibility is one reason why this competition to encourage young people to take up science writing is so important and why I am helping to launch it today. Another is that popular science writing can address wider issues. When I give talks about astronomy and cosmology, the questions that interest people most are the truly 'fundamental' ones that I can't answer: 'Is there life in space?', Is the universe infinite?' or 'Why didn't the Big Bang happen sooner?'
Passage 3
WELCOME TO ECO-CITY
The world has quietly undergone a major shift in balance. According to UN estimates, 2008 marked the first year in history when more than half of the world's population lived in cities. There are now around 3.4bn human beings stuffed into every available corner of urban space, and more are set to follow. At a time when humanity has woken up to its responsibility to the environment, the continuing urban swell presents an immense challenge. In response, cities all over the world are setting themselves high targets to reduce carbon emissions and produce clean energy. But if they don't succeed, there is another option: building new eco-cities entirely from scratch.
'Rather than just design a city in the same way we'd done it before, we can focus on how to minimise the use of resources to show that there is a different way of doing it', says Roger Wood, associate director at Arup. Wood is one of hundreds of people at Arup, the engineering and architecture giant, hired by Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation to set out a master plan for the Dongtan eco-city.
When the first demonstrator phase is complete, Dongtan will be a modest community of 5000. By 2020, that will balloon to 80,000 and in 2050, the 30km2 site will be home to 500,000. Arup says that every one of those people will be no more than seven minutes' walk from public transport. Only electric vehicles will be allowed in the city and residents will be discouraged from using even those because each village is planned so that the need for motorised transport is minimal.
That's a big cornerstone of Arup's design for Dongtan. The aim is that the city will require 66 percent less energy than a conventional development, with wind turbines and solar panels complementing some 40 percent that comes from biological sources. These include human sewage and municipal waste, both
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of which will be controlled for energy recovery and composting. Meanwhile, a combined heat and power plant will burn waste rice husks.
Work on Dongtan had been scheduled to begin in late 2008 with the first demonstration phase completed by 2010. Unfortunately, problems resulting from the complicated planning procedures in China have led to setbacks. Dongtan's rival project in Abu Dhabi has suffered no such holdups. Engineers broke ground on the Masdar eco-city in March 2008. Although it will take a different approach in terms of design, like Dongtan, the city is planned to be a zero-carbon, uber- efficient showcase for sustainable living.
In the blistering desert of the Gulf state, where it's almost too hot to venture outdoors for three or four months of the year, the big question for Masdar is how to keep cool without turning on the air conditioning. In this equation, insulation and ventilation suddenly become more important than the performance of solar panels. To maximise shade, I the city's streets are packed closely together, with limits of four or five storeys set on the height of most buildings.
The other major design feature for Masdar is that the whole city is raised on a deck. The pedestrian level will be free of vehicles and much of the noisy maintenance that you see in modern cities. Cars are banned from Masdar entirely, while an underground network of 'podcars' ferries people around the city.
Given that this concern is legitimate, developers of both cities would do well to incorporate both a range of housing and jobs to make them inclusive to everyone. This will be difficult, obviously, but then just about everything is difficult when you're completely reinventing the way we build and live in a metropolis. And supposing these sustainable and super-efficient cities are successful, could they even usher in a new world order?
The missing paragraphs:
A. The city will be built on a corner of Chongming Island in the mouth of the Yangtze River. It will be made up of three interlinked, mixed-use villages, built one after the other. Each will combine homes, businesses and recreation, and a bridge and tunnel link will connect the population with Shanghai on the mainland.
B. The skin of each building will be crucial. Thick concrete would only soak up heat and release it slowly, so instead engineers will use thin walls that react quickly to the sun. A thin metal layer on the outside will help to reflect heat and stop it from penetrating the building. Density is also critical for Masdar. The city is arranged in a definite square with a walled border. Beyond this perimeter, fields of solar panels, a wind farm and a desalination plant will provide clean energy and water, and act as a barrier to prevent further sprawl.
C. 'If you plan your development so people can live, work and shop very locally, you can quite significantly reduce the amount of energy that's being used', Wood says. 'Then, not only have you made the situation easier because you've reduced the energy demand, but it also means that producing it from renewable sources becomes easier because you don't have to produce quite as much'.
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D. Arup's integrated, holistic approach to city planning goes further still. Leftover heat from the power plant will be channelled to homes and businesses. Buildings can be made of thinner materials because the electric cars on the road will be quiet, so there's less noise to drown out. Dongtan will initially see an 83 per cent reduction in waste sent to landfill compared to other cities, with the aim to reduce that to nothing over time. And more than 60 per cent of the whole site will be parks and farmland, where food is grown to feed the population.
E. Developers at Masdar and Dongtan are adamant that each city will be somewhere that people want to live. Critics do not question this but they do, nevertheless, wonder if these cities will be realistic places for people on a low income. They say that it would be easy for places like these to become a St Tropez or a Hamptons, where only rich people live.
F. Funded by a 12bn (euro) investment from the government in Abu Dhabi, it has not passed the attention of many observers that Masdar is being built by one of the world's largest and most profitable producers of oil. Even so, under the guidance of architects as Foster and Partners, the city is just as ambitious as its Chinese counterpart and also hinges on being able to run on low power.
G. Since cars and other petrol-based vehicles are banned from the city, occupants will share a network of ‘podcars' to get around. The 'personal rapid transit system' will comprise 2500 driverless, electric vehicles that make 150,000 trips a day by following sensors along a track beneath the pedestrian deck. Up to six passengers will ride in each pod: they just hop in at one of 83 stations around the city and tap in their destination.
H. Incredibly, this is already happening. Two rival developments, one in China and one in the United Arab Emirates, are progressing in tandem. Work on Masdar, 17km from Abu Dhabi, began in 2008, while Dongtan, near Shanghai, will eventually be home to half a million people. The aim for both is to build sustainable, zero-carbon communities that showcase green technology and demonstrate what smart urban planning can achieve in the 21st century.
Passage 4
The Rise of Silicon Valley
On January 11, 1971, an article was published in the trade newspaper Electronic News about the companies involved in the semiconductor and computer industries in Santa Clara Valley at the southern end of San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA. The article was entitled 'Silicon Valley USA', a reference to the fact that silicon is the most important substance used in commercial semiconductors and their applications. The name stuck, and in light of the commercial success of the companies there, 'Silicon Valley' is now used as a metonym for the high-tech sector.
One such new business was the one founded by two graduates of the nearby Stanford University called Bill Hewlett and David Packard. In 1938 the pair had $538, and along with Dave's wife Lucile, decided to rent a property at 367 Addison Avenue, Palo Alto. For $45 a month they got a ground floor apartment for Dave and Lucile, a garden shed where Bill slept, and a garage from which to run the business, a garage which has more recently been dubbed 'The birthplace of Silicon Valey’.
As time passed, the 200A was improved and developed, resulting in the 200B. Eight of these improved oscillators were bought by The Walt Disney Company, for use in testing and certifying the Fantasound
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surround-sound systems installed in cinemas for the 1940 movie Fantasia. Success was beginning to come.
Although they are often considered to be the symbolic founders of Silicon Valley, they did not deal in semiconductor devices until the 1960s. From then onwards, the semiconductor devices they made were mostly intended for internal use, for such products as measuring instruments and calculators. Today, however, Hewlett-Packard is the largest manufacturer of personal computers in the world.
Terman also had a more direct influence through his role at Stanford University. The University had been established in 1891 in the north-western part of the Santa Clara Valley, and from the start, its leaders aimed to support the local region. The result was that the University played an important part in establishing and developing local businesses, and indeed its alumni went on to found some major companies, not just Hewlett-Packard, but such household names as Yahoo! and Google.
Terman's proposal was taken up by Stanford University, and in 1951 Stanford Industrial Park was created. The first tenant in the Park was Varian Associates, founded by Stanford alumni in the 1930s to make components for military radars. Hewlett-Packard moved in two years later. The Park still flourishes to this day, although it is now known as Stanford Research Park. Current tenants include Eastman Kodak, General Electric and Lockheed Corporation.
The 1950s were also a time of great development in electronics technology. Most importantly, he development of the transistor continued. Research scientist William Shockley moved to the Santa Clara Valley region in 1956, when he formed Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. There is research team started constructing semiconductors from silicon, rather than germanium, as id most other researchers. The silicon transistors proved to perform much better, and started to )e used in radios and the early computers.
Since the 1970s, however, the most important developments pioneered in Silicon Valley have been in software and Internet services rather than hardware. So even though Hewlett-Packard remains the largest producers of computers in the world, the future of Silicon Valley might well lie elsewhere.
The missing paragraphs:
A. Throughout their early years, Hewlett and Packard were mentored by one of their university professors, Frederick Terman. Terman was Stanford University's dean of engineering and provost during the 1940s and 1950s, and had a positive influence on many of the successful companies in Silicon Valley. Indeed, his influence was such that he has been dubbed 'the father of Silicon Valley'. Terman encouraged his students to form their own companies and personally invested in many of them, and in this way nurtured many highly successful companies, including not just Hewlett-Packard, but others such as Varian Associates and Litton Industries.
B. Hewlett-Packard was arguably the first company to offer a mass-produced personal computer, namely the 9100A. For marketing reasons, however, the 9100A was sold as a 'desktop calculator'. It simply did not resemble what was then considered a 'computer', namely the large machines being sold
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by IBM. The 9100A fitted comfortably on a desk, and possessed a small screen and a keyboard. In fact, it was more like an oversized and over-expensive precursor of a pocket calculator than a modern PC, since its keyboard lacked letter keys.
C. Following the end of the Second World War in 1945, universities in the United States were experiencing enormous enrolment demands from the returning military personnel. Terman proposed launching a scheme which would kill two birds with one stone. The idea was to lease out land owned by Stanford University to high-technology companies for their offices. This scheme would firstly finance the University's growth requirements and thereby facilitate a larger student intake, and secondly provide local employment opportunities for graduating students.
D. The beginnings of Silicon Valley can be traced back to the early twentieth century. At that time, Santa Clara Valley was known for its orchards which flourished in California's balmy climate. There were nevertheless a number of experimenters and innovators in such fields as radio, television and military electronics, and several people were trying to take advantage of any business opportunities that might arise.
E. It was also in Silicon Valley that other revolutionary electronic components were developed. The silicon-based integrated circuit, the microprocessor and the microcomputer were all invented by companies there, as well as such electronic devices as the mouse and the ink-jet printer. Indeed, Silicon Valley has been the world's most important site of electronic innovation over the past 50 years.
F. In those early years, Hewlett-Packard was a company without a focused direction. They made a whole range of electronic products, with diverse customers in industry and agriculture. In the 1940s, their principal products were test equipment, including such devices as voltmeters, oscilloscopes and thermometers. They aimed to provide better quality products than their competitors, and made a big effort to make their products more sensitive and accurate than their rivals.
G. Another bond between the University and the local high-technology businesses was established in 1954, with the creation of the Honors Cooperative Program. This programme allowed employees of the businesses to pursue part-time graduate degrees at the University whilst continuing to work full-time in their jobs. In this way, key workers in the electronics industry were able to hone their skills and knowledge, creating the foundation for the development of Silicon Valley.
H. Of the many products Hewlett and Packard worked on, the first financially successful one was a precision audio oscillator, a device for testing sound equipment. This product, the 200A, featured the innovative use of a small light bulb as a temperature-dependent resistor in a critical section of the circuit, which allowed them to sell it for $54.40, only a quarter of the price of their competitors' audio oscillators.
Passage 5
THE ORIGIN OF ADVERTISING
Advertising has become a major force in our modern world. Through our airwaves, up in the skies, on walls, streets and along motorways, almost nowhere can we go and not be bombarded by adverts. It has become so prevalent that scientists and researchers have analyzed its sociological effect extensively - how it influences buying habits, desensitizes consumers and in some cases even repels them.
Such rudimentary content is also believed to be present in the first printed adverts, used by ancient Egyptians to communicate sales messages through the use of papyrus. In contrast with the ephemeral nature of today’s advertising, they would also carve messages of commerce into stone or on steel plates, which would remain visible for a lifetime.
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Naturally, we cannot know for sure, but one would guess that the power of persuasion was present in the spoken adverts of ancient times. You could suppose that the loudest, most colorful, most entertaining crier garnered the most business. Although we do not experience this form of advertisement often today, sellers in public markets in Europe and the Middle East still employ this method.
The specific message on the printing plate was ‘We buy high-quality steel rods and make fine- quality needles to be ready for use at home in no time', and the seller also placed a rabbit logo and the name of his shop in the center. The plate, made of copper and dating back to the Song dynasty of the 10th-century China, was used to print posters the dimensions of which were nearly perfect squares roughly the size of a window frame.
It was not until the rise of newspapers did advertising makes its next big leap. During this time, targeted slogans and catchphrases became popular. The first such instance of a paid newspaper advert appeared in the French newspaper La Presse in 1836 and what was so revolutionary about it was that the seller paid for its placement, allowing the newspaper to charge its readers less.
Known as quackery, such messages boasted cures for common ailments that went above and beyond what traditional remedies could provide. Naturally, an unsuspecting and undereducated public was particularly susceptible to such fabrications. Much as how quackery would be dispelled today, doctors went out of their way to publish medical journals debunking the claims made by these adverts.
In the advert, a painting of a child blowing bubbles - a work of art literally entitled Bubbles, by English artist Sir John Everett Millais - was used as the background of a poster, with the product visible in the foreground. The visual immediately linked the product with high - class society and it is a tactic that is undeniably still very much used today.
Along with the staggering investment is the use of a broad range of tactics to maximize impact, such as focus groups, evocative imagery, storytelling, and seemingly boundless product placement. So psychological is the effect that it has given rise to the belief that companies know everything about you. Nevertheless, with such creativity poured into the field, one can still appreciate its art form and its place in history.
The missing paragraphs:
A. One need look no further than failed advertising campaigns. Some went too far in their shock value, had to be apologized for and hurt the brand more than they helped. In one example, a game manufacturer, in order to promote the carnal violence visible in the game, held an event which showcased an actual deceased goat.
B. For better or worse, there was no stopping the budding advertising industry. Agencies started to spring up and with that came campaigns. The first successful campaign was for the British soap
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manufacturer Pears. With the help of chairman Thomas James Barratt, the company successfully linked a catchy slogan with high culture.
C. In contrast to the adverts being produced for the literate populace of this region, text was largely absent from adverts that proliferated in the towns and cities of medieval Europe. To circumvent this obstacle, adverts used commonly recognizable imagery such a boot for a cobbler or a diamond for a carver to promote products and services. And still, criers remained the go-to medium for relaying the sellers’ messages to the public.
D. Also entering the industry was the vast sums of money that companies would splash out on campaigns. A little over one hundred American companies in 1893 spent 50,000 US dollars on advertising campaigns. That equates to over one million US dollars today, still a fraction of what today’s companies spend at nearly 500 billion pounds globally.
E. In this era, though, the medium with the greatest prevalence was oral. Public criers would circulate messages in urban centers to passers-by advertising various products. There is evidence of written adverts and for more than just selling wares. In one such advert found at the ruins of Thebes dated 1,000 BC, a man was offering a reward for a runaway slave. But oral messages were the main method of delivery until the invention of the printing press in 1450.
F. But there was a time when an advert was a rare occurrence and its effect on society amounted to no more than its core function; that is, to connect seller and buyer. We know that the written word began around 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, in the Sumerian civilization that existed in modern-day southern Iraq. The make - up of this early scrawling consisted of grain inventories, from what historians and linguists can make of it.
G. Adverts in ancient times did contain an element of sophistication which essentially lured buyers, albeit less obviously. On the other side of the world, in ancient China, the language of adverts contained selling points and friendly imagery, such as in an advert to coax people into using a craftsman’s services. This particular advertising medium is considered the oldest example of printed advertising.
H. That formula was soon copied by other publishers looking to increase their profits while expanding their circulation. British newspapers, which had been using newspaper advertising since the 18th century, used adverts to promote books and newspapers themselves. The printing press had made their production much more affordable and advertising content expanded to include medicines, in what would prove to be the first instances of false advertising.
Passage 6
Where to next?
Are travelers selfish?
Travel, when you think about it, is largely a selfish pursuit. It’s all about me, me, me. Places I can go to, people I can meet, things I can see, food I can try, my bucket list, my experiences. Are you a self absorbed traveler? Let’s look at some common scenarios, starting with the plight of traveler seeking to discover something unique.
Your first reaction is to blame the guide book, regardless of the fact that it’s probably the way you found out about it, too. And it’s true, that book in your hand has a bit to answer for. But that’s a simplistic notion. In an age of mass tourism, of backpacker grapevines, of internet and travel blogs, it’s inevitable that what was once a pristine paradise will be seething with tourists before long.
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You can direct a little blame at the locals, too. Without their efforts, that which seems to offend you would not exist. They like the money and they want more - although it’s a bit hard to blame them for that. If tourist cash spent at beach bars and souvenir shops can ease poverty and raise living standards it would be selfish to begrudge the locals their chance at a better life.
Honestly, either accept a place as it is, even if it doesn't live up to your expectations or go elsewhere if the trappings of the progress are too offensive for your sensibilities. Don’t blame the guide books, the internet, the Trip Advisor. Don’t blame your fellow tourists. And definitely don’t blame the locals for trying to improve their lives - that would be the height of selfishness.
They say money makes the world go round. So how do you spend your hard-earned cash on holiday? Do you shop locally? If you stay, eat and shop in places owned by locals, your money will stay in the community and help generate jobs. Foreign-owned resorts or hotel chains may offer a higher level of comfort and extra facilities, but very little of what you pay actually trickles down into the local economy. If there’s a beach nearby, do you really need a swimming pool?
And last but not least where money’s concerned, bargain fairly. Saving an extra dollar on that T-shirt or souvenir will hardly make a dent in your budget, but it can make a huge difference to the seller. Once, I was disgusted to witness a shameful exchange in which a well-fed foreigner haggled hard to get a novelty toy for less than half price. The saving? Fifty measly cents. Adding insults to injury, he boasted about it to his companions. He felt great because he’d put one over on the locals. Don’t be that person!
People say there’s something about lending a hand that lifts voluntourism above the average travel experience. But I think there's still an element of selfishness even to the noble volunteers who help build homes or teach art to children. You do these things because it downsizes to all this goodwill, however, is that voluntourism is actually quite expensive. Most companies that organize volunteer trips will charge you plenty for the experience - often far more than it would cost you to just visit those countries on your own.
Well, that’s it. Some of you will disagree with my views, but I’m up for a good debate. Are you a selfish traveler?
The missing paragraphs:
A. Maybe you’re not the kind of travelers who thinks hell is other people. Maybe you’re happy to discover and share the world with others. That’s commendable. But while you’re roaming the planet, think about your personal impact on the people and the places around you. Are you contributing in positive ways that can be of benefit to others, or are you exacerbating problems? Are you causing harm to satisfy selfish needs?
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B. You get to an exotic destination expecting to find an untouched and unspoiled paradise, a secluded fantasyland just for you, far from the well-worn tourist path.. ..and the place is crawling with other travelers. There are loud and obnoxious backpackers, huge speakers thumping out the most awful dance music, and tour buses spewing their human cargo.
C. One last thing before I get off my soapbox: voluntourism. It’s a novel concept, and, to those whose idea of travel is a secluded resort and a day spa, a somewhat frightening one. The idea is simple: as a traveler from the first world, you’re usually in a far more privileged position than those who live in the countries you’re visiting. But, rather than just comfort yourself with the knowledge that your money is helping their economy, why not do something tangible to help out, even for just a few days?
D. There is something imperialistic about not allowing - or wanting - less developed countries to develop along the lines of our own cultures. After a recent trip to Nepal, a member of our group was complaining about locals in a village, and how the place was spoilt because there was an internet café. I couldn’t believe in my ears. Why can’t these Nepalese people enjoy the web if they so choose?
E. Stay calm and don’t get angry if you think you’ve been charged a bit more for your transport, hotel or food. Perhaps it’s just an honest mistake. Try to point out the discrepancy in a polite and respectful way, and don’t accuse anyone of dishonesty. Yes, it’s your hard-earned cash, but don’t assume that people want to rob you of it just because they have less.
F. Be careful about what you’re buying, too. In countries with lax environmental regulations, or where authorities turn a blind eye to illegal trade, it’s not difficult to find products made from endangered species such as shell, coral and certain woods. It never fails to shock me when I hear of anyone buying ivory products, like carving or jewellery. And then there medicine made from parts of endangered animals. Don’t even think about it! The tiger population in Asia has been drastically reduced, and for what? Some crackpot cure that doesn’t work.
G. Isn’t this concept of an exclusive paradise selfish? Not only that, but the arrogance implicit in it is astonishing too. Without wishing to state the obvious, the second you decide to go to a place because it is paradise, you are part of the problem. The blaring speakers, international sport on big screen TVs, karaoke, fish and chips - it’s all there because it’s what the tourists want.
H. Yes, that’s right - you pay the organization to go and work for free. The money is supposed to go into the community, but often, shady operators pocket the profits. As if that wasn’t bad enough volunteers could be taking jobs from locals. Think about it. If there’s free labor, i.e. you, why would anyone employ a local? That’s probably what I find most disturbing about the whole concept. It’s not ethical or responsible, and in my humble opinion, best avoided.
Passage 7
Disposable Buildings?
Look at a building, any building. What can it tell you? Few would dispute that architecture reflects the taste and style of the period that gave rise to it.
Today’s architectural landmarks tend to be secular rather than religious. For the present purpose, however, it is less important to acknowledge a building’s patronage than it is to carefully scrutinize its form. So, observe a contemporary building. What stands out? Discord? A hodgepodge of odd shapes and garish colours that jar? What about the next? The same? Seeing one modern building does little to prepare the viewer for the next one; uniformity is negligible.
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In the larger scheme of things, these differences are minor and it is safe to say that uniformity of appearance is a major factor that differentiates between the buildings of the past and those of the present. Another important distinction and one so obvious that it may seem to go without saying, is that modern buildings do not look like old buildings, (unless they are built in imitation, like neoclassical architecture, for example).
This is more than a comment on the quality of the respective building materials. The pyramids were built to last; the Millennium Dome most assuredly was not. This is not to say that the intention for modern structures is that they should last a certain amount of time and then fall down – as a kind of disposable building. Nevertheless, they are undeniably designed and built with only the most immediate future in mind.
The people of the past, on the other hand, looked ahead. It is clear that they intended a building to be there for future generations. This is corroborated by the fact that, in countries where the climate allows it, they planted trees. Consider this: planting a tree, especially one that will someday grow to be very big, is the ultimate in altruistic behaviour. When a man plants an oak sapling, he knows very well that he will not see the tree that it will become.
There is a third element particularly relevant to contemporary architecture – the aesthetic element. Aesthetics pose a challenge because they are inherently subjective. Beauty is, indeed, in the eye of the beholder; we all have likes and dislikes, and they are not the same. Even allowing for this, however, most would probably agree that ‘beautiful’ is not the most apt way to describe the majority of modern buildings.
With most modern buildings, we certainly are. Without interventions, these words inevitably take on a negative connotation, yet it can be constructive to be confronted with something completely different, something a bit shocking. A reaction is provoked. We think. All art evolves with time, and architecture, in all its varied manifestations, is, after all, a form of art.
As a result, we have been left with much material for study from past eras. What will we leave behind us, in turn? If our culture still places a value on the past and its lessons or a belief that we carry our history with us, in continuity, to the future, then this view has not been reflected in our architecture. The generations of the future may not be able to benefit from us as we have benefited from the generations of the past.
The missing paragraphs:
A. The fact remains, though, that until the present day, art forms have been made to last. Countless paintings and sculptures, as well as buildings, bear witness to this. The artists and architects of the past strove to impart their creations with attributes that would stand the test of time. It was part and parcel
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of the successful execution. It was an expression of pride; a boast. It was the drive to send something of themselves to live on into the future, for reasons selfless and selfish both.
B. For architecture, patronage has always been important. While this method of financing a work of art is as old as the idea of art itself, it gathered huge momentum during the Renaissance. During this period, wealthy and powerful families vied with each other in a competition for the creation of the breathtakingly beautiful and the surprisingly different. It was a way of buying into their own immortality, and that of the artist or the architect to boot.
C. Indeed, it is rare to see a modern building that has worn well, that is free from leaks or rising damp, that is without bits of its outer structure falling off. It is hard to call to mind an edifice built in the last fifty years which is not like this or will not soon be. These days, we are not interested in posterity: if a building serves our purpose and that of our children, that seems to be enough.
D. However, neither of these distinctions reveal much about the builders, apart from their aesthetic and their fondness for visual conformity. Now, take a look at some old buildings. The fact that you can see them at all, that they are intact and relevant, is what opens up the chasm between the present and the past. We do not know how long today’s architectural heritage will last, but the chances are that it will not stand the test of time.
E. Why is this? Do we not require our buildings to be beautiful any longer? Perhaps beauty has become architecturally superfluous, or just plain old-fashioned. It could be that the idea of beauty is too sentimental and sugary for the contemporary taste. Maybe the modern psyche demands something more stimulating and less easy than beauty. Perhaps we yearn to be challenged.
F. Historic buildings from a common era, on the other hand, resemble each other. Take the example of the Gothic cathedral. To the non-specialist, one Gothic cathedral looks much like the next; if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. This view, while extreme, is correct in the sense that there is a uniformity of style in every Gothic cathedral ever built. Anyone can see it. It takes an enthusiast, however, to spot and appreciate the myriad subtleties and differences.
G. In contrast, any tree-planting that takes place today is largely commercial, motivated by the quest for immediate gain. Trees are planted that will grow quickly and can be cut down in a relatively short space of time. The analogy between tree planting and the construction of buildings is a good one; both activities today show thinking that is essentially short-term and goal-driven; we want an instantaneous result and, on top of that, we want it to be profitable.
H. Buildings, however, can reveal considerably more than that. They give us a unique insight into the collective mind and culture of those responsible for their construction. Every building was conceived with an objective in mind, to serve some purpose or assuage some deficiency, and someone was responsible for commissioning them. Throughout the course of history, buildings have generally been constructed at the instigation of the rich and powerful – products of politics, religion or both. This is what makes them so revealing.
Passage 8
Born to be together
"It was just so unfair. Being criticised for being the same, when we shared the same genetic make-up and the same upbringing." You can still hear the bitterness in the voice of Amrit Kaur Singh, an artist, many years after she was ridiculed at university for producing work that was virtually indistinguishable from that of her identical twin, Rabindra.
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Nowadays, at the age of 35, the Singh twins make a point of being the same. They dress alike, often work together on the same paintings, and collect joint awards for their internationally acclaimed work. They are inseparable, living together in an extended Indian family near Liverpool, professional twins par excellence. Their art creates a delightful dual world that straddles two cultures.
This is the challenge facing every twin, and every parent of twins: how to find a natural identity and independence in a society that is both fascinated and repelled by the idea of replica human beings. Should individuals with a common gene pool be steered along divergent paths, or should they be encouraged to accept, even celebrate, their sameness?
Liz has fought to treat her boys as individuals, fighting off attempts by others to lump them together as "the twins". They dress differently and sleep in different rooms. On their birthday, they will have two cakes and separate parties with different guests. When young, they attended playgroup on separate days. At school, Liz requested different classes.
Her philosophy is not shared by Gina Prince. Her six-year-old twins, Amy and Karina, have spent their childhood in matching outfits. They ride around on identical bikes. Presents must always be the same. They sleep in bunks, top to toe in the same one. When school decided to separate them, the twins were unhappy and so was their mother.
But treating the girls alike has brought problems as well as benefits. "I do enjoy the attention when I take them out dressed the same. I also prevent jealousy by always being fair. However, I worry that they won't grow up to lead their own lives. I want them to be more independent, but often they still want to be the same. It's very difficult. They are twins after all. Who am I to force them apart?"
But according to Gina Siddons, mother of 16-year-old twins and manager of the Twins and Multiple Birth Association, problems often crop up when parents treat twins as a "unit". "The answer is to separate them early," she says. "Send them to playgroup on different days, put them in different classes at school. If you dress them the same, it gives other people the message that they are a unit. And there is nothing more disappointing for a child than opening exactly the same present as his or her twin."
It is difficult, however, to feel sad about the Singh twins. The world of their paintings is bright, humorous, intelligent and warm. They are successful. They seem happy. They are doing what they want to do. If the fact that they are doing it together is a problem, then it is our problem, and not theirs.
The missing paragraphs:
A. "People are not sure how to deal with twins. There is a weirdness about the idea that makes people treat them like freaks," says Liz Traynor, mother of identical seven-year-old twins, John and Angus. "I didn't want any of that for my two. I hated it. I wanted them to be like any other child."
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B. "You must treat your twins as individuals and make special time for each twin separately. Be relaxed about their shared interests, but don’t let them gang up on you. If you have problems, join a twin club for information and support, " she says, "But what I really cannot approve of is giving joint birthday cakes or presents.”
C. "They were quite upset. They are very close. I wanted them to have their own beds, but they always end up in the same one. My mum bought them different coats, but Amy just wanted Karina's. I buy them the same all the time just to save arguments," she says.
D. The twins themselves appear frequently in their own work, always dressed the same, often in mirrored poses, occasionally with one twin standing apart, perhaps with a camcorder to emphasise her detachment. The same but different, together but apart. It is a fascinating theme, one that has brought them professional recognition and an annoying, but commercially useful, media obsession with their twin status. It is, as they both admit, "a double-edged sword".
E. As for Amrit and Rabindra, Gina says: "It is very common for twins to follow the same career path, even when they are comfortable with their own individuality. The Singh twins' experience just shows how we have failed to educate the public on the subject of twins. People think they are copying each other when they are just the same by nature. They end up being forced to make a statement about it. It's sad."
F. "I admit I was paranoid about it when they were little," Liz confesses. "They are extremely alike, even losing teeth at the same times, and many people can't tell them apart, but because of our efforts, they have emerged as individuals, with different personalities, different interests and different friends. G. They exchange glances, two tiny and beautiful mirror images, dressed in traditional Sikh costumes that are duplicated down to the last elaborate detail. They both remember the sneering words of the examiners: "Haven't you ever tried to be different?" "As if," Amrit says contemptuously, "we had ever actually tried to be the same."
H. Barney Allcock, father of two-year-old twins Alec and Max, agrees. His wife Jane founded their local twin club. "You've got to treat twins exactly the same, otherwise they fight." says Barney. "We dress ours differently because I for one can't tell them apart, but everything else they get is the same. They are rarely split up; they get on well, so what's the point? The more obstacles you put in their way, the more they will break them down. They were born together, and you can't take that closeness away from them."
Passage 9
SUMMER
The small, bright lawn stretched away smoothly to the big, bright sea. The turf was hemmed with an edge of scarlet geranium and coleus, and cast-iron vases painted in a chocolate colour, standing at intervals along the winding path that led to the sea, looped their garlands of petunia and ivy geranium above the neatly raked gravel.
A number of ladies in summer dresses and gentlemen in grey frock-coats and tall hats stood on the lawn or sat upon the benches. Every now and then, a slender girl in starched muslin would step from the tent, bow in hand, and speed her shaft at one of the targets, while the spectators interrupted their talk to watch the result.
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The Newbury Archery Club always held its August meeting at the Beauforts'. The sport, which had hitherto known no rival but croquet, was beginning to be discarded in favour of lawn-tennis. However, the latter game was still considered too rough and inelegant for social occasions, and as an opportunity to show off pretty dresses and graceful attitudes, the bow and arrow held their own
In New York, during the previous winter, after he and May had settled down in the new, greenish yellow house with the bow-window and the Pompeian vestibule, he had dropped back with relief into the old routine of the office. The renewal of his daily activities had served as a link with his former self.
At the Century, he had found Winsett again, and at the Knickerbocker, the fashionable young men of his own set. And what with hours dedicated to the law and those given to dining out or entertaining friends at home, with an occasional evening at the opera or the theatre, the life he was living had still seemed a fairly real and inevitable sort of business.
But the Wellands always went to Newport, where they owned one of the square boxes on the cliffs, and their son-in-law could adduce no good reason why he and May should not join them there. As Mrs. Welland rather tartly pointed out, it was hardly worthwhile for May to have worn herself out trying on summer clothes in Paris, if she was not to be allowed to wear them; and this argument was of a kind to which Archer had as yet found no answer.
It was not May's fault, poor dear. If, now and then, during their travels, they had fallen slightly out of step, harmony had been restored by their return to conditions she was used to. He had always foreseen that she would not disappoint him; and he had been right. No, the time and place had been perfect for his marriage.
He could not say that he had been mistaken in his choice, for she fulfilled all that he had expected. It was undoubtedly gratifying to be the husband of one of the handsomest and most popular young married women in New York, especially when she was also one of the sweetest- tempered and most reasonable of wives; and Archer had not been insensible to such advantages.
The missing paragraphs:
A. May herself could not understand his obscure reluctance to fall in with so reasonable and pleasant a way of spending the summer. She reminded him that he had always liked Newport in his bachelor days, and as this was indisputable, he could only profess that he was sure he was going to like it better than ever now that they were to be there together. But as he stood on the Beaufort verandah and looked out on the brightly peopled lawn, it came home to him with a shiver that he was not going to like it at all.
B. In addition, there had been the pleasurable excitement of choosing a showy grey horse for May's brougham (the Wellands had given the carriage). Then, there was the abiding occupation and interest of arranging his new library, which, in spite of family doubts and disapproval, had been carried out as he had dreamed, with a dark-embossed paper, an Eastlake book-case and “sincere” armchairs and tables.
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C. The next morning Archer scoured the town in vain for more yellow roses. In consequence of this search, he arrived late at the office, perceived that his doing so made no difference whatever to any one, and was filled with sudden exasperation at the elaborate futility of his life. Why should he not be, at that moment, on the sands of St. Augustine with May Welland?
D. Newland Archer, standing on the verandah of the Beaufort house, looked curiously down upon this scene. On each side of the shiny painted steps, was a large, blue China flowerpot on a bright yellow China stand. A spiky, green plant filled each pot, and below the verandah ran a wide border of blue hydrangeas edged with more red geraniums. Behind him, the French windows of the drawing rooms through which he had passed gave glimpses, between swaying lace curtains, of glassy parquet floors islanded with chintz pouffes, dwarf armchairs, and velvet tables covered with trifles of silver.
E. Archer looked down with wonder at the familiar spectacle. It surprised him that life should be going on in the old way when his own reactions to it had so completely changed. It was Newport that had first brought home to him the extent of the change.
F. Archer had married (as most young men did) because he had met a perfectly charming girl at the moment when a series of rather aimless sentimental adventures were ending in premature disgust; and she had represented peace, stability, comradeship, and the steadying sense of an inescapable duty.
G. Half-way between the edge of the cliff and the square wooden house (which was also chocolate coloured, but with the tin roof of the verandah striped in yellow and brown to represent an awning), two large targets had been placed against a background of shrubbery. On the other side of the lawn, facing the targets, was pitched a real tent, with benches and garden- seats about it.
H. Newport, on the other hand, represented the escape from duty into an atmosphere of unmitigated holiday-making. Archer had tried to persuade May to spend the summer on a remote island off the coast of Maine (called, appropriately enough, Mount Desert) where a few hardy Bostonians and Philadelphians were camping in native cottages, and whence came reports of enchanting scenery and a wild, almost trapper-like existence amid woods and waters.
Passage 10
Is There A Limit To Our Intelligence?
Increasing IQ scores suggests that future generations will make us seem like dimwits by Tom Govern Almost thirty years ago James R. Flynn, a researcher at the University of Otago in New Zealand, discovered a phenomenon that social scientists still struggle to explain: IQ scores have been increasing steadily since the beginning of the 20th century. Nearly 30 years of follow-up studies have confirmed the statistical reality of the global uptick, now known as the Flynn effect. And scores are still climbing.
The Flynn effect means that children will, on average, score just under 10 points higher on IQ tests than their parents did. By the end of this century our descendants will have nearly a 30- point advantage over us if the Flynn effect continues. But can it continue or is there some natural limit to the Flynn effect and to human intelligence?
Most of the IQ gains come from just two subtests devoted to abstract reasoning. One deals with “similarities” and poses questions such as “How are an apple and an orange alike?” A low- scoring answer would be “They’re both edible.” A higher-scoring response would be “They’re both fruit,” an answer that transcends simple physical qualities. The other subtest consists of a series of geometric
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patterns that are related in some abstract way, and the test taker must correctly identify the relation among the patterns.
“If you don’t classify abstractions, if you’re not used to using logic, you can’t really master the modern world,” Flynn says. “Alexander Luria, a Soviet psychologist, did some wonderful interviews with peasants in rural Russia in the 1920s. He would say to them, ‘Where there is always snow, bears are always white. There is always snow at the North Pole. What colour are the bears there?’ They would say they had never seen anything but brown bears. They didn’t think of a hypothetical question as meaningful.”
A naive interpretation of the Flynn effect quickly leads to some strange conclusions. Extrapolating the effect back in time, for example, would suggest that the average person in Great Britain in 1900 would have had an IQ of around 70 by 1990 standards. “That would mean that the average Brit was borderline mentally retarded and wouldn’t have been able to follow the rules of cricket,” says David Hambrick, a cognitive psychologist at Michigan State University. “And of course, that’s absurd.”
So, what will the future bring? Will IQ scores keep going up? One thing we can be sure of is that the world around us will continue to change, largely because of our own actions.
Therefore, our minds and culture are locked in a similar feedback loop. We are creating a world where information takes forms and moves with speeds unimaginable just a few decades ago. Every gain in technology demands minds capable of accommodating the change, and the changed mind reshapes the world even more. The Flynn effect is unlikely to end during this century, presaging a future world where you and I would be considered woefully premodern and literal.
Perhaps we should not be so surprised by the existence of something like the Flynn effect. Its absence would be more startling; it would mean we were no longer responding to the world we are creating. If we are lucky, perhaps we will keep building a world that will make us smarter and smarter – one where our descendants will contemplate our simplicity.
The missing paragraphs:
A. The villagers were not stupid. Their world just required different skills. “I think the most fascinating aspect of this isn’t that we do so much better on IQ tests,” Flynn says. “It’s the new light it sheds on what I call the history of the mind in the 20th century.”
B. Of course, our minds are changing in ways other than those which can be measured by IQ tests. “People are getting faster.” Hambrick says. “Previously, it had been thought that 200 milliseconds is about the fastest that people can respond. But if you ask people who have done this sort of research, they’re having to discard more trials. We text, we play video games, we do a lot more things that require really fast responses.
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C. Almost as soon as researchers recognized the Flynn effect, they saw that the ascending IQ scores were the result almost entirely of improved performances on specific parts of the most widely used intelligence tests. It would seem more natural to expect improvements in crystallized intelligence – the kind of knowledge picked up in school. This is not happening, though. The scores in the sections that measure skills in arithmetic and vocabulary levels have remained largely constant over time.
D. A paradox of the Flynn effect is that these tools were designed to be completely nonverbal and culture-free measurements of what psychologists call fluid intelligence – an innate capacity to solve unfamiliar problems. Yet the Flynn effect clearly shows that something in the environment is having a marked influence on the supposedly culture-free components of intelligence in populations worldwide. Detailed studies of generational differences in performance on intelligence tests suspect that our enhanced ability to think abstractly may be linked to a new flexibility in the way we perceive objects in the world.
E. Flynn likes to use a technological analogy to describe the long-term interaction between mind and culture. “The speeds of automobiles in 1900 were absurdly slow because the roads were so lousy,” he says. “You would have shaken yourself to pieces.” But roads and cars co-evolved. When roads improved, cars did, too, and improved roads prompted engineers to design even faster cars.
F. “To my amazement, in the 21st century the increase is still continuing,” says Flynn, whose most recent book on the subject – Are We Getting Smarter? – was published in 2012. “The latest data show the gains in America holding at the old rate of three-tenths of a point a year.
G. Consequently, we may not be more intelligent than our forebears, but there is no doubt our minds have changed. Flynn believes the change began with the industrial revolution, which engendered mass education, smaller families, and a society in which technical and managerial jobs replaced agricultural ones. Education, in turn, became the driver for still more innovation and social change, setting up an ongoing positive feedback loop between our minds and a technology-based culture that does not seem likely to end any time soon.
H. Formal education, though, cannot entirely explain what is going on. Some researchers had assumed that most of the IQ increases seen over the 20th century might have been driven by gains at the left end of the intelligence bell curve among those with the lowest scores, an outcome that would likely be a consequence of better educational opportunities. However, a close examination of 20 years of data revealed that the scores of the top 5 per cent of students were going up in perfect lockstep with the Flynn effect.
PRACTICE TEST 1
Part 1: Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) according to the text. Write your answers (A, B, C or D) in the corresponding numbered boxes. (15pts) The Balance in the Oceans
The oceans’ predators come in all shapes and sizes. For example, one of the less infamous ones is the colorful starfish, which feeds on plant life, coral, or other shellfish such as mussels for sustenance. A more bloodcurdling example, especially to human beings and most other species of fish, is the shark, though most scientists agree that only ten per cent of the 450 plus species of sharks have been documented as actually attacking a human. Still, there is another predator lurking invisibly in the bodies of water of the world, one which poses one of the greatest threats to all species of ocean life - bacteria. Though many types of fish are continually stalking and evading one another for survival, they all band together in an attempt to keep bacteria levels at bay in order to allow their own existence to continue.
Bacteria play a dual role in the ecosystems of the oceans. On the one hand, they are beneficial as they stimulate plant life through food decomposition, which releases the necessary chemicals for the
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growth of plant life. This is called nutrient recycling and helps keep the oceans alive. But, on the other hand, bacteria are a major predator for all fish because they attack fragile, weaker individuals. If they are allowed to run rampant and not kept in check, they could virtually suffocate the oceans. In water, bacteria prove to be an even greater threat than on land because, as they proliferate, they reduced the oxygen levels necessary for organisms in the oceans to live. Further, when fish populations become depleted due to factors like overfishing, microbes such as algae expand and threaten the fragile ecosystems of the ocean. Therefore, ocean predators play a critical role by thwarting bacteria growth and maintaining the oceans’ equilibrium by reducing vulnerable links in the food chain.
In many ways, the balance within the oceans’ ecosystems mirrors the human body. That is, all of their components must work in harmony for them to stay healthy, efficient, and alive. If one of them is missing or deficient, an entire system can be placed in jeopardy. In both the human body and the ocean, bacteria play a vital role because, at manageable levels, they aid in protecting and cleaning each system of foreign agents that can be of harm. On the other hand, if bacteria levels increase and become out of control, they can take hold of a system, overrun it, and become debilitating. Therefore, both oceans and the human body have a kind of custodian that maintains bacteria levels. In the human body, it is called a phagocyte. Phagocytes eat up sick, old, or dying cells, which are more prone to bacterial invasion, and thus keep the body healthy. Like in the human body, bacteria can prove fatal to the living organisms in the ocean.
Like phagocytes in the human body, ocean predators work as antibacterial custodians of the seas. In essence, they are the immune system and a vital link in the food chain because they remove small, injured, or sickly fish from the ocean environment before bacteria can become too comfortable and multiply. By ridding the ocean of weaker fish, predators allow the stronger ones to multiply, making their species stronger and more resilient. Without their services and with their declining numbers, bacteria will blossom to levels that will eventually overpower and kill even the strongest species of fish because of the depletion of their number one source of life, all important oxygen.
While the greatest battle in the ocean may seem on the surface to be the survival of the fittest fish, a closer look reveals something completely different: fish versus microorganisms. Clearly, most living organisms in the oceans are hunters by nature, but this way of life does not merely provide a food source for a dominant species. It also maintains a healthy level of bacteria in an ocean’s ecosystem, thus ensuring the continuation of all species of life within. Major predators are necessary, like the antibacterial cells of the human body, to keep this delicate balance in synch. If their numbers continue to decline and humans ignore their vital role in the ocean, dire consequences will definitely result.
1. The word “lurking” in the passage is closest in meaning to ______.
A. attacking B. increasing C. waiting D. approaching 2. According to paragraph 1, which of the following is true of ocean predators? A. The shark is the deadliest one for all other kinds of life in the oceans.
B. One of the most threatening to all fish populations is bacteria.
C. Starfish do little damage to the population of mussels and shellfish.
D. Most of the killers that hide in the oceans are unknown to humans.
3. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 1 about bacteria?
A. They can be extremely detrimental to fish if their numbers increase.
B. They are able to feed off themselves when other food sources are limited.
C. They stimulate plant life, which in turn releases oxygen into the water.
D. They present themselves in numerous shapes and forms as well as colors.
4. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage?
A. Evasion tactics help fish escape from the threats posed by an increasing number of bacteria. B. Various species of fish prey upon one another in order to lower bacteria levels in the ocean.
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C. high bacteria levels in the ocean help most species of fish to survive by providing them with food.
D. Rivals or not, all fish help one another survive by preventing bacteria from proliferating. 5. The author discusses “nutrient recycling” in paragraph 2 in order to ______. A. show how bacteria act similarly in the ocean and the human body
B. explain the different roles of nutrients and oxygen for species of fish
C. indicate that bacteria do have a positive impact in the oceans
D. note how chemicals from bacteria are able to stimulate plant growth
6. The word “thwarting” in the passage is closest in meaning to ______.
A. encouraging B. preventing C. slowing D. sustaining 7. According to paragraph 2, bacteria are dangerous to ocean life because ______. A. they have the capability to attack both strong and weaker fish
B. they could monopolize the critical breathable gas in the ocean
C. they get rid of vulnerable links, like dying fish, in the food chain
D. they blossom out of control when overfishing becomes dominant
8. The word “debilitating” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. stimulating B. hindering C. elevating D. weakening 9. The author’s description of phagocytes mentions all of the following EXCEPT______. A. They rid the human body of potentially dangerous organisms.
B. They act in a similar manner as the predators of the ocean.
C. They dispose of bacteria to make weakened cells revive.
D. They are cleaning agents in humans to maintain bacteria levels.
10. According to paragraph 4, the elimination of weaker fish by ocean predators ______. A. can often have an adverse effect on the population of the certain prey species B. inadvertently helps stronger species of fish to proliferate more easily
C. reduces oxygen levels, thereby causing bacteria to multiply in their prey
D. allows bacteria to grow and multiply in the stronger individuals of a species
Part 2: Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. Write your answer in the space provided. (15 pts)
JUST RELAX
A. Hypnosis is an intriguing and fascinating process. a trance-like mental state is induced in one person by another, who appears to have the power to command that person to obey instructions without question. Hypnotic experiences were described by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, while references to deep sleep and anesthesia have been found in the Bible and the Jewish Talmud. In the mid-1700s Franz Mesmer, an Australian physician, developed his theory of ‘animal magnetism’, which was the belief that the cause of disease was the ‘improper distribution of the invisible magnetic fluid’. Mesmer used water tubs and magnetic wands to direct these supposed fluids to his patients. In 1784, a French commission studied. Mesmer’s claims, and concluded that these cues were only imagined by patients. However, people continued to believe in this process of ‘mesmerism’ and it was soon realized that successful results could be achieved, but without the need for magnets and water.
B. The term hypnotism was first used by James Braid, a British physician who studied suggestion and hypnosis in the mid-1800s. He demonstrated that hypnosis differed from sleep, that it was a physiological response and not a result of secret powers. During the same period, James Esdaile, a Scottish doctor working in India, used hypnotism instead of anesthetic in over 200 major surgical operations, including leg amputations. Later that century a French neurologist, Jean Chrcot, successfully experimented with hypnosis in his clinic for nervous disorders.
C. Since then, scientists have shown that the state of hypnosis is a natural human behavior, which can affect psychological, social and/ or physical experiences. The effects of hypnotism depend on the ability, willingness and motivation of the person hypnotized. Although hypnosis has been compared to dreaming and sleepwalking, it is not actually related to sleep. It involves a more active and intensive
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mental concentration of the person being hypnotized. Hypnotized people can talk, write and walk about and they are usually fully aware of what is being said and done.
D. There are various techniques used to induce hypnosis. The best known is a series of simple suggestions repeated continuously in the same tone of voice. The subject is instructed to focus their attention on an object of fixed point, while being told to relax, breathe deeply, and allow the eyelids to grow heavy and close. As the person responds, their state of attention changes, and this altered state often leads to other changes. For example, the person may experience different levels of awareness, consciousness, imagination, memory and reasoning or becoming responsive to suggestions. Additional phenomenon may be produced or eliminated such as blushing, sweating, paralysis, muscle tension or anaesthesia. Although these changes can occur with hypnosis, none of these experiences is unique to it. People who are very responsive to hypnosis are also more responsive to suggestions when they are hypnotized. This responsiveness increases during hypnotism. This explains why hypnosis takes only a few seconds for some, whilst other people cannot easily hypnotized.
E. It is a common misunderstanding that hypnotists are able to force people to perform criminal or any other acts against their will. In fact, subjects can resist suggestions, and they retain their ability to distinguish right from wrong. This misunderstanding is often the result of public performances where subjects perform ridiculous or highly embarrassing actions at the command of the hypnotist. These people are usually instructed not to recall their behavior after re-emerging from the hypnotic state, so it appears that they were powerless while hypnotized. The point to remember, however, is that these individuals chose to participate, and the success of hypnotism depends on the willingness of a person to be hypnotized.
F. Interestingly, there are different levels of hypnosis achievable. Thus deep hypnosis can be induces to allow anaesthesia or surgery, childbirth or dentistry. This contrasts to a lighter state of hypnosis, which deeply relaxes the patient who will then follow simple directions. This latter state may be used to treat mental health problems, as it allows patients to feel calm while simultaneously thinking about distressing feelings or painful memories. Thus patients can learn new responses to situations or come up with solutions to problems. This can help recovery from psychological conditions such as anxiety, depression or phobias. Sometime after traumatic incidents, memory of the incidents may be blocked. For example, some soldiers develop amnesia (loss of memory) as a result of their experiences during wartime. Through hypnosis these repressed memories can be retrieved and treated. A variation of this treatment involves age regression, when the hypnotist take the patient back to a specific age. In this way patients may remember events and feelings from that time, which may be affecting their current well being.
G. Physicians also have made use of the ability of a hypnotized person to remain in a given position for long periods of time. In one case, doctors had to graft skin onto a patient’s badly damaged foot. First, skin from the person’s abdomen was grafted onto his arm; then the graft was transferred to his foot. With hypnosis, the patient held his arm tightly in position over his abdomen for three weeks, then over his foot for four weeks. Even though these positions were unusual, the patient at no time left uncomfortable.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-G from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-xi, next to Questions 1-6.
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Questions 7-10: Complete the summary of the history of hypnosis. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answer in the space provided. References to hypnotism can be found both in the Talmud and the (7) ______________________. Even when Mesmer’s (8) ______________________ were not used, successful results occurred without them. Braid identified hypnosis as a natural (9) ______________________ response, rather than magical or mystical. Early psychological studies showed the difference between sleep and hypnosis. Successful hypnosis requires the subject’s active (10) ______________________. Consequently subjects can speak or move around and are aware of their surroundings.
Part 3: Read the text about Captain Cook and answer questions (10pts).
For questions 1-10, identify which section A-F each of the following is mentioned. Write ONE letter A-F in the space provided. Each letter may be used more than once.
The Changing Faces of Captain Cook
A. In the painting by Johann Zoffany which depicts the death of Captain James Cook- the tireless eighteenth- century explorer- the captain is shown lying on the ground, mortally wounded and surrounded by an angry group of half-naked warriors. The painting, in keeping with others of the late eighteenth century, contributed to the growing demand for stylised depictions of heroic deaths of British officers. This fashion reinforced the viewpoint that British elite, at that time, were selflessly willing to sacrifice themselves in the name of enlightenment and progress. During his career in the navy, Cook made three important voyages into the Pacific. A quick look at a map of that area today will show reminders of that time – for example, the Cook Islands, and Mount Cook on the South Island of New Zealand.
B. There is some controversy as to whether Cook should be regarded simply as part of the progress which led to Europe spreading its influence and strength into the Pacific or whether he played a more active role. Either way, the significance of his discoveries remains immense. His expeditions contributed greatly to the study of botany, anthropology, navigation, exploration, cartography, and medicine. In fact, his greatest accomplishments probably stemmed from his thorough approach to whatever he undertook, which led him to be able to consolidate the work of earlier explorers. Cook’s first two voyages into the Pacific were characterized by his tolerance and forbearance towards the inhabitants he visited and the importance he placed on the physical well-being of his crew. His recognition of the fact that there was a huge cultural difference between his men and the islanders influenced his dealings with the latter and the commands issued to the former. By contrast, his third and last voyage saw a different, more irritable Cook, a man who frequently punished his own men for minor misdemeanours. Flogging became a relatively common event and some crew members even began to plot munity.
C. On 16th January, 1779, Cook’s ships put in at Kealakekua Bay on Hawaii having first slowly circumnavigated the island. He had decided that they should pass the winter in a warm region before sailing to the west coast of America to restock the ships. The arrival of the ships coincided with the rituals surrounding the worship of the god Lono. By landing at the bay where the temple of the god was situated in this particular season, the expedition managed to fulfil with amazing precision the various legends associated with Lono. Even the ship’s masts and sails bore some resemblance to the emblem of the god. Speculation has it that the inhabitants of the island may have supposed Cook to actually be the
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god, visiting them in human form, or that he was a human representative of the god. Either way, they welcomed him with open arms and gave him help in stocking his ships with food.
D. The expedition’s departure happened to coincide with the end of this season worship, no doubt further adding to the islanders’ conviction that Cook was a man of importance to them. Unfortunately, the expedition had to return to the bay after one of the ships suffered storm damage. On the island, it was now a period dedicated to the worship of the god Ku, a deity opposed to Lono. Cook’s return was therefore contradictory and confusing, and potentially upset the delicate relationship that had been previously established. Events took a turn for the worse with his decision to confront the Hawaiian king after the theft of one of his boats. This served to incur the wrath of the islanders and triggered a series of events that led to his being killed by them on the beach of the bay while trying to flee from the island.
PRACTICE TEST 2
Part 1: Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) according to the text. Write your answers (A, B, C or D) in the corresponding numbered boxes. (10pts) The craft of perfumery has an ancient and global heritage. The art flourished in Ancient Rome, where the emperors were said to bathe in scent. After the fall of Rome, much of the knowledge was lost, but survived in Islamic civilizations in the Middle Ages. Arab and Persian pharmacists developed essential oils from the aromatic plants of the Indian peninsula. They developed the processes of distillation and suspension in alcohol, which allowed for smaller amounts of raw materials to be used than in the ancient process, by which flower petals were soaked in warm oil. This knowledge was carried back to European monasteries during the Crusades.
At first, the use of fragrances was primarily associated with healing. Aromatic alcoholic waters were ingested as well as used externally. Fragrances were used to purify the air, both for spiritual and health purposes. During the Black Death, the bubonic plague was thought to have resulted from a bad odour which could be averted by inhaling pleasant fragrances such as cinnamon. The Black Death led to an aversion to using water for washing, and so perfume was commonly used as a cleaning agent.
Later on, the craft of perfume re-entered Europe, and was centred in Venice, chiefly because it was an important trade route and a centre for glass-making. Having such materials at hand was essential for the distillation process. In the late seventeenth century, trade soared in France, when Louis XIV brought in policies of protectionism and patronage which stimulated the purchase of luxury goods. Here, perfumery was the preserve of glove-makers. The link arose since the tanning of leather required putrid substances. Consequently, the gloves were scented before they were sold and worn. A glove and
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perfume makers’ guild had existed here since 1190. Entering it required 7 years of formal training under a master perfumer.
The trade in perfume flourished during the reign of Louis XV, as the master glove-and-perfume makers, particularly those trading in Paris, received patronage from the royal court, where it is said that a different perfume was used each week. The perfumers diversified into other cosmetics including soaps, powders, white face paints and hair dyes. They were not the sole sellers of beauty products. Mercers, spicers, vinegar-makers and wig-makers were all cashing in on the popularity of perfumed products. Even simple shopkeepers were coming up with their own concoctions to sell.
During the eighteenth century, more modern, capitalist perfume industry began to emerge, particularly in Britain where there was a flourishing consumer society. In France, the revolution initially disrupted the perfume trade due to its association with aristocracy, however, it regained momentum later as a wider range of markets were sought both in the domestic and overseas markets. The guild system was abolished in 1791, allowing new high-end perfumery shops to open in Paris.
Perfume became less associated with health in 1810 with a Napoleonic ordinance which required perfumers to declare the ingredients of all products for internal consumption. Unwilling to divulge their secrets, traders concentrated on products for external use. Napoleon affected the industry in other ways too. With French ports blockaded by the British during the Napoleonic wars, the London perfumers were able to dominate the markets for some time.
One of the significant changes in the nineteenth century was the idea of branding. Until then, trademarks had had little significance in the perfumery where goods were consumed locally, although they had a long history in other industries. One of the pioneers in this field was Rimmel who was nationalized as a British citizen in 1857. He took advantage of the spread of railroads to reach customers in wider markets. To do this, he built a brand which conveyed prestige and quality, and were worth paying a premium for. He recognised the role of design in enhancing the value of his products, hiring a French lithographer to create the labels for his perfume bottles.
Luxury fragrances were strongly associated with the affluent and prestigious cities of London and Paris. Perfumers elsewhere tended to supply cheaper products and knock-offs of the London and Paris brands. The United States perfume industry, which developed around the docks in New York where French oils were being imported, began in this way. Many American firms were founded by immigrants, such as William Colgate, who arrived in 1806. At this time, Colgate was chiefly known as a perfumery. Its Cashmere Bouquet brand had 625 perfume varieties in the early 20th century.
1. The purpose of the text is to ______.
A. compare the perfumes from different countries
B. describe the history of perfume making
C. describe the problems faced by perfumers
D. explain the different uses of perfume over time
2. Which of the following is NOT true about perfume making in Islamic countries? A. They created perfume by soaking flower petals in oil
B. They dominated perfume making after the fall of the Roman Empire
C. They took raw materials for their perfumes from India
D. They created a technique which required fewer plant materials
3. Why does the writer include this sentence in paragraph 2?
During the Black Death, the bubonic plague was thought to have resulted from a bad odour which could be averted by inhaling pleasant fragrances such as cinnamon.
A. To explain why washing was not popular during the Black Death
B. To show how improper use of perfume caused widespread disease
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C. To illustrate how perfumes used to be ingested to treat disease
D. To give an example of how fragrances were used for health purposes
4. Why did the perfume industry develop in Paris?
A. Because it was an important trade route.
B. Because of the rise in the glove-making industry.
C. Because of the introduction of new trade laws.
D. Because of a new fashion in scented gloves.
5. What does “putrid” mean (paragraph 3)?
A. Bad-smelling B. Rare C. Prestigious D. Numerous 6. Which of the following people most influenced the decline of perfumes as medicine? A. Louis XIV B. Louis XV C. Rimmel D. Napoleon 7. In paragraph 4, it is implied that ______.
A. master glove and perfume makers created a new perfume each week.
B. the Royal Court only bought perfume from masters.
C. mercers, spicers and other traders began to call themselves masters.
D. cosmetics were still only popular within the Royal Courts.
8. How did the French Revolution affect the Parisian perfume industry?
A. The industry declined then rose again.
B. The industry collapsed and took a long time to recover.
C. The industry was greatly boosted.
D. The industry lost most of its overseas customers.
9. Which of the following is NOT true of Rimmel?
A. He was one of the first people to utilise trademarks.
B. He created attractive packaging for his products.
C. His products were more expensive than other brands.
D. He transported his goods to potential customers by train.
10. What is implied about the New York perfume industry?
A. It was the fastest-growing perfume industry in the world at that time.
B. It was primarily developed by immigrants arriving from France.
C. It copied luxury fragrances and sold them cheaply.
D. There was a wider range of fragrances available here than elsewhere.
Part 2: Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. Write your answer in the space provided. (10 pts)
THE PROBLEM OF SCARCE RESOURCES
Section A
The problem of how health-care resources should be allocated or apportioned, so that they are distributed in both the most just and most efficient way, is not a new one. Every health system in an economically developed society is faced with the need to decide (either formally or informally) what proportion of the community’s total resources should be spent on health-care; how resources are to be apportioned; what diseases and disabilities and which forms of treatment are to be given priority; which members of the community are to be given special consideration in respect of their health needs; and which forms of treatment are the most cost-effective.
Section B
What is new is that, from the 1950s onwards, there have been certain general changes in outlook about the finitude of resources as a whole and of health-care resources in particular, as well as more specific changes regarding the clientele of health-care resources and the cost to the community of those resources. Thus, in the 1950s and 1960s, there emerged an awareness in Western societies that resources for the provision of fossil fuel energy were finite and exhaustible and that the capacity of nature or the environment to sustain economic development and population was also finite. In other words, we became aware of the obvious fact that there were ‘limits to growth’. The new consciousness that there were also severe limits to health-care resources was part of this general revelation of the obvious.
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Looking back, it now seems quite incredible that in the national health systems that emerged in many countries in the years immediately after the 1939-45 World War, it was assumed without question that all the basic health needs of any community could be satisfied, at least in principle; the ‘invisible hand’ of economic progress would provide.
Section C
However, at exactly the same time as this new realization of the finite character of health-care resources was sinking in, an awareness of a contrary kind was developing in Western societies: that people have a basic right to health-care as a necessary condition of a proper human life. Like education, political and legal processes and institutions, public order, communication, transport and money supply, health-care came to be seen as one of the fundamental social facilities necessary for people to exercise their other rights as autonomous human beings. People are not in a position to exercise personal liberty and to be self-determining if they are poverty-stricken, or deprived of basic education, or do not live within a context of law and order. In the same way, basic health-care is a condition of the exercise of autonomy. Section D
Although the language of ‘rights’ sometimes leads to confusion, by the late 1970s it was recognized in most societies that people have a right to health-care (though there has been considerable resistance in the United Sates to the idea that there is a formal right to health-care). It is also accepted that this right generates an obligation or duty for the state to ensure that adequate health-care resources are provided out of the public purse. The state has no obligation to provide a health-care system itself, but to ensure that such a system is provided. Put another way, basic health-care is now recognized as a ‘public good’, rather than a ‘private good’ that one is expected to buy for oneself. As the 1976 declaration of the World Health Organisation put it: ‘The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition’. As has just been remarked, in a liberal society basic health is seen as one of the indispensable conditions for the exercise of personal autonomy.
Section E
Just at the time when it became obvious that health-care resources could not possibly meet the demands being made upon them, people were demanding that their fundamental right to health-care be satisfied by the state. The second set of more specific changes that have led to the present concern about the distribution of health-care resources stems from the dramatic rise in health costs in most OECD countries, accompanied by large-scale demographic and social changes which have meant, to take one example, that elderly people are now major (and relatively very expensive) consumers of health-care resources. Thus in OECD countries as a whole, health costs increased from 3.8% of GDP in 1960 to 7% of GDP in 1980, and it has been predicted that the proportion of health costs to GDP will continue to increase. (In the US the current figure is about 12% of GDP, and in Australia about 7.8% of GDP.)
As a consequence, during the 1980s a kind of doomsday scenario (analogous to similar doomsday extrapolations about energy needs and fossil fuels or about population increases) was projected by health administrators, economists and politicians. In this scenario, ever-rising health costs were matched against static or declining resources.
Notes:
- OECD: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
- GDP: Gross Domestic Products
Questions 1-5: Choose the correct heading for the five sections A-E of the Reading Passage from the list of headings below.
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Questions 6-10: Do the following statements agree with the view of the writer in the Reading Passage? Write:
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
6. Personal liberty and independence have never been regarded as directly linked to health-care. 7. Health-care came to be seen as a right at about the same time that the limits of health-care resources became evident.
8. In OECD countries population changes have had an impact on health-care costs in recent years. 9. OECD governments have consistently underestimated the level of health-care provision needed. 10. In most economically developed countries the elderly will to make special provision for their health care in the future.
Part 3: You are going to read four different opinions from leading scientists about the future of fuel. For questions 1-10, choose from the writers A-D. The writers may be chosen more than once. (10 pts)
A. Howard Bloom, Author
Even though most people are convinced that peak oil has already passed, to me, peak oil is just a hypothesis. There is a theory that carbon molecules can be found in interstellar gas clouds, comets and in space ice, and if this is the case, our planet could ooze oil forever. And even if we stay earthbound, those who say we have raped the planet of all its resources are wrong. There’s a huge stock of raw materials we haven’t yet learned to use. There are bacteria two miles beneath our feet which can turn solid granite into food. If bacteria can do it, surely we creatures with brains can do it better. As far as the near future of energy is concerned, I believe the most promising alternative fuels are biofuels, such as ethanol. It’s an alcohol made from waste products such as the bark of trees, woodchips, and other ‘waste materials’. And that’s not the only waste that can create energy. My friend in the biomass industry is perfecting an energy-generation plant which can run on human waste. We produce that in vast quantities, and it’s already gathered in centralised locations.
B. Michael Lardelli, Lecturer in Genetics at The University of Adelaide
Nothing exists on this planet without energy. It enables flowers and people to grow and we need it to mine minerals, extract oil or cut wood and then to process these into finished goods. So the most fundamental definition of money is as a mechanism to allow the exchange and allocation of different forms of energy. Recently, people have been using more energy than ever before. Until 2005 it was possible to expand our energy use to meet this demand. However, since 2005 oil supply has been in decline, and at the same time, and as a direct result of this, the world’s economy has been unable to expand, leading to global recession. With the world’s energy and the profitability of energy production in decline at the same time, the net energy available to support activities other than energy procurement will decrease. We could increase energy production by diverting a large proportion of our remaining oil energy into building nuclear power stations and investing in renewable forms of energy. However, this is very unlikely to happen in democratic nations, because it would require huge, voluntary reductions in living standards. Consequently, the world economy will continue to contract as oil production declines. With energy in decline, it will be impossible for everyone in the world to become wealthier. One person's increased wealth can only come at the expense of another person's worsened poverty.
C. Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell
People are understandably worried about a future of growing energy shortages, rising prices and international conflict for supplies. These fears are not without foundation. With continued economic growth, the world's energy needs could increase by 50% in the next 25 years. However, I do not believe that the world is running out of energy. Fossil fuels will be able to meet growing demand for a long time
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in the future. Taking unconventional resources into account, we are not even close to peak oil. The priority for oil companies is to improve efficiency, by increasing the amount of oil recovered from reservoirs. At present, just over a third is recovered. We can also improve the technology to control reservoir processes and improve oil flow. However, these projects are costly, complex and technically demanding, and they depend on experienced people, so it is essential to encourage young people to take up a technical career in the energy industry. Meanwhile, alternative forms of energy need to be made economically viable. International energy companies have the capability, the experience and the commercial drive to work towards solving the energy problem so they will play a key role. But it is not as simple as merely making scientific advances and developing new tools; the challenge is to deliver the technology to people worldwide. Companies will need to share knowledge and use their ideas effectively.
D. Craig Severance, blogger
What will it take to end our oil addiction? It’s time we moved on to something else. Not only are world oil supplies running out, but what oil is still left is proving very dirty to obtain. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred precisely because the easy-to-obtain oil is already tapped. If we don’t kick oil now, we will see more disasters as oil companies move to the Arctic offshore and clear more forests. The cheap petroleum is gone; from now on, we will pay steadily more and more for our oil - not just in dollars, but in the biological systems that sustain life on this planet. The only solution is to get on with what we will have to do anyway - end our dependence on it! There are many instances in which oil need not be used at all. Heat and electricity can be produced in a multitude of other ways, such as solar power or natural gas. The biggest challenge is the oil that is used in transportation. That doesn’t mean the transportation of goods worldwide, it’s the day-to-day moving around of people. It means we have to change what we drive. The good news is that it's possible. There are a wide range of fuel efficient cars on offer, and the number of all-electric plug-in cars is set to increase. For long distance travel and freight, the solution to this is to look to rail. An electrified railway would not be reliant upon oil, but could be powered by solar, geothermal, hydro, and wind sources. There is a long way to go, but actions we take now to kick our oil addiction can help us adapt to a world of shrinking oil supplies.
PRACTICE TEST 3
Part 1: Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) according to the text. Write your answers (A, B, C or D) in the corresponding numbered boxes. (10pts) Orientation and Navigation
To South Americans, robins are birds that fly north every spring. To North Americans, the robins simply vacation in the south each winter. Furthermore, they fly to very specific places in South America and will often come back to the same trees in North American yards the following spring. The question is not why they would leave the cold of winter so much as how they find their way around. The question perplexed people for years, until, in the 1950s, a German scientist named Gustavo Kramer provided some answers and. in the process, raised new questions.
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Kramer initiated important new kinds of research regarding how animals orient and navigate. Orientation is simply facing in the right direction; navigation involves finding ones way from point A to point B.
Early in his research, Kramer found that caged migratory birds became very restless at about the time they would normally have begun migration in the wild. Furthermore, he noticed that as they fluttered around in the cage, they often launched themselves in the direction of their normal migratory route. He then set up experiments with caged starlings and found that their orientation was, in fact, in the proper migratory direction except when the sky was overcast, at which times there was no clear direction to their restless movements. Kramer surmised, therefore, that they were orienting according to the position of the Sun. To test this idea, he blocked their view of the Sun and used mirrors to change its apparent position. He found that under these circumstances, the birds oriented with respect to the new “Sun.” They seemed to be using the Sun as a compass to determine direction. At the time, this idea seemed preposterous. How could a bird navigate by the Sun when some of us lose our way with road maps? Obviously, more testing was in order.
So, in another set of experiments, Kramer put identical food boxes around the cage, with food in only one of the boxes. The boxes were stationary, and the one containing food was always at the same point of the compass. However, its position with respect to the surroundings could be changed by revolving either the inner cage containing the birds or the outer walls, which served as the background. As long as the birds could see the Sun, no matter how their surroundings were altered, they went directly to the correct food box. Whether the box appeared in front of the right wall or the left wall, they showed no signs of confusion. On overcast days, however, the birds were disoriented and had trouble locating their food box.
In experimenting with artificial suns, Kramer made another interesting discovery. If the artificial Sun remained stationary, the birds would shift their direction with respect to it at a rate of about 15 degrees per hour, the Sun’s rate of movement across the sky. Apparently, the birds were assuming that the “Sun” they saw was moving at that rate. When the real Sun was visible, however, the birds maintained a constant direction as it moved across the sky. In other words, they were able to compensate for the Sun’s movement. This meant that some sort of biological clock was operating-and a very precise clock at that.
What about birds that migrate at night? Perhaps they navigate by the night sky. To test the idea, caged night-migrating birds were placed on the floor of a planetarium during their migratory period. A planetarium is essentially a theater with a domelike ceiling onto which a night sky can be projected for any night of the year. When the planetarium sky matched the sky outside, the birds fluttered in the direction of their normal migration. But when the dome was rotated, the birds changed their direction to match the artificial sky. The results clearly indicated that the birds were orienting according to the stars.
There is accumulating evidence indicating that birds navigate by using a wide variety of environmental cues. Other areas under investigation include magnetism, landmarks, coastlines, sonar, and even smells. The studies are complicated by the fact that the data are sometimes contradictory and the mechanisms apparently change from time to time. Furthermore, one sensory ability may back up another.
1. Which of the following can be inferred about bird migration from paragraph 1? A. Birds will take the most direct migratory route to their new habitat.
B. The purpose of migration is to join with larger groups of birds.
C. Bird migration generally involves moving back and forth between north and south. D. The destination of birds' migration can change from year to year.
2. The word ‘perplexed’ in the passage is closest in meaning to _____.
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A. defeated B. interested C. puzzled D. occupied 3. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the underlined sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
A. Experiments revealed that caged starlings displayed a lack of directional sense and restless movements.
B. Experiments revealed that caged starlings were unable to orient themselves in the direction of their normal migratory route.
C. Experiments revealed that the restless movement of caged starlings had no clear direction. D. Experiments revealed that caged starlings' orientation was accurate unless the weather was overcast.
4. The word ‘preposterous’ in the passage is closest in meaning to _____.
A. unbelievable B. inadequate C. limited D. creative 5. According to paragraph 3, why did Kramer use mirrors to change the apparent position of the Sun? A. To test the effect of light on the birds’ restlessness
B. To test whether birds were using the Sun to navigate
C. To simulate the shifting of light the birds would encounter along their regular migratory route D. To cause the birds to migrate at a different time than they would in the wild 6. According to paragraph 3, when do caged starlings become restless?
A. When the weather is overcast
B. When they are unable to identify their normal migratory route
C. When their normal time for migration arrives
D. When mirrors are used to change the apparent position of the Sun
7. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 4 about Kramer’s reason for filling one food box and leaving the rest empty?
A. He believed the birds would eat food from only one box.
B. He wanted to see whether the Sun alone controlled the birds’ ability to navigate toward the box with food.
C. He thought that if all the boxes contained food, this would distract the birds from following their migratory route.
D. He needed to test whether the birds preferred having the food at any particular point of the compass.
8. According to paragraph 5, how did the birds fly when the real Sun was visible? A. They kept the direction of their flight constant.
B. They changed the direction of their flight at a rate of 15 degrees per hour.
C. They kept flying toward the Sun.
D. They flew in the same direction as the birds that were seeing the artificial Sun. 9. The experiment described in paragraph 5 caused Kramer to conclude that birds possess a biological clock because _____.
A. when birds navigate they are able to compensate for the changing position of the Sun in the sky B. birds innate bearings keep them oriented in a direction that is within 15 degrees of the Suns direction
C. birds’ migration is triggered by natural environmental cues, such as the position of the Sun D. birds shift their direction at a rate of 15 degrees per hour whether the Sun is visible or not 10. According to paragraph 6, how did the birds navigate in the planetarium’s nighttime environment? A. By waiting for the dome to stop rotating
B. By their position on the planetarium floor
C. By orienting themselves to the stars in the artificial night sky
D. By navigating randomly until they found the correct orientation
Part 2: Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. Write your answer in the space provided. (10 pts)
Party Labels in Mid-Eighteenth Century England
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A. Until the late 1950s the Whig interpretation of English history in the eighteenth century prevailed. This was successfully challenged by Lewis Namier, who proposed, based on an analysis of the voting records of MPs from the 1760 intake following the accession to the throne of George III, that the accepted Whig/Tory division of politics did not hold. He believed that the political life of the period could be explained without these party labels, and that it was more accurate to characterise political division in terms of the Court versus Country.
B. An attempt was then made to use the same methodology to determine whether the same held for early eighteenth century politics. To Namier’s chagrin this proved that at the end of Queen Anne’s reign in 1714 voting in parliament was certainly based on party interest, and that Toryism and Whiggism were distinct and opposed political philosophies. Clearly, something momentous had occurred between 1714 and 1760 to apparently wipe out party ideology. The Namierite explanation is that the end of the Stuart dynasty on the death of Queen Anne and the beginning of the Hanoverian with the accession of George I radically altered the political climate.
C. The accession of George I to the throne in 1715 was not universally popular. He was German, spoke little English, and was only accepted because he promised to maintain the Anglican religion. Furthermore, for those Tory members of government under Anne, he was nemesis, for his enthronement finally broke the hereditary principle central to Tory philosophy, confirming the right of parliament to depose or select a monarch. Moreover, he was aware that leading Tories had been in constant communication with the Stuart court in exile, hoping to return the banished King James II. As a result, all Tories were expelled from government, some being forced to escape to France to avoid execution for treason.
D. The failure of the subsequent Jacobite rebellion of 1715, where certain Tory magnates tried to replace George with his cousin James, a Stuart, albeit a Catholic, was used by the Whig administration to identify the word “Tory” with treason. This was compounded by the Septennial Act of 1716, limiting elections to once every seven years, which further entrenched the Whig’s power base at the heart of government focused around the crown. With the eradication of one of the fundamental tenets of their philosophy, alongside the systematic replacement of all Tory positions by Whig counterparts, Tory opposition was effectively annihilated. There was, however, a grouping of Whigs in parliament who were not part of the government.
E. The MPs now generally referred to as the “Independent Whigs” inherently distrusted the power of the administration, dominated as it was by those called “Court Whigs”. The Independent Whig was almost invariably a country gentleman, and thus resisted the growth in power of those whose wealth was being made on the embryonic stock market. For them the permanency of land meant patriotism, a direct interest in one’s nation, whilst shares, easily transferable, could not be trusted. They saw their role as a check on the administration, a permanent guard against political corruption, the last line of defence of the mixed constitution of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. The reaction against the growing mercantile class was shared by the Tories, also generally landed country gentlemen. It is thus Namier’s contention, and that of those who follow his work, that by the 1730s the Tories and the Independent Whigs had fused to form a Country opposition to the Court administration, thus explaining why voting records in 1760 do not follow standard party lines.
F. It must be recognised that this view is not universally espoused. Revisionist historians such as Linda Colley dispute that the Tory party was destroyed during this period, and assert the continuation of the Tories as a discrete and persistent group in opposition, allied to the Independent Whigs but separate. Colley’s thesis is persuasive, as it is clear that some, at least, regarded themselves as Tories rather than Whigs. She is not so successful in proving the persistence either of party organisation beyond family connection, or of ideology, beyond tradition. Furthermore, while the terms “Tory” and “Whig” were used frequently in the political press, it was a device of the administration rather than the
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opposition. As Harris notes in his analysis of the “Patriot” press of the 1740s, there is hardly any discern ible difference between Tory and Whig opposition pamphlets, both preferring to describe themselves as the “Country Interest”, and attacking “the Court”.
Questions 1-5: Reading Passage has 6 paragraphs (A-F). Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the List of headings below. One of the headings has been done for you as an example. NB. There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use all of them.
Questions 6-10: Do the statements below agree with the information in Reading Passage? Write: Yes if the statement agrees with the information in the passage
No if the statement contradicts the information in the passage
Not Given if there is no information about the statement in the passage
Example: Until the late 1950s the Whig interpretation of English history was the one that was widely accepted. Answer: Yes.
6. According to Namier, political divisions in the mid-18th century were not related to party labels. 7. According to Namier, something happened between 1714 and 1760 to affect party ideology. 8. George I was not liked by everyone.
9. The Independent Whigs were all landowners with large estates.
10. Neither the Independent Whigs, nor the Tories trusted the mercantile classes.
Part 3: Read the extract from a review of a book about the English language For questions 1-10. choose from the sections A-E. The sections maybe chosen more than once.
In which section are the following mentioned?
_____1. the view that the global influence of a language is nothing new
_____2. a return to the global use of not one but many languages
_____3. explanations as to what motivates people to learn another language
_____4. the view that a language is often spoken in places other than its country of origin _____5. an appreciation of a unique and controversial take on the role of the English language _____6. a query about the extent to which people are attached to their own first language _____7. an optimistic view about the long-term future of the English language _____8. the hostility felt by those forced to learn another language
_____9. a derogatory comment about the English language
_____10. a shared view about the ultimate demise of English in the future
The Last Lingua Franca by Nicholas Ostler
Deborah Cameron predicts an uncertain future for English
A. The Emperor Charles V is supposed to have remarked in the 16th century that he spoke Latin with God, Italian with musicians, Spanish with his troops, German with lackeys, French with ladies and English with his horse. In most books about English, the joke would be turned on Charles, used to preface the observation that the language he dismissed as uncultivated is now a colossus bestriding the
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world. Nicholas Ostler, however, quotes it to make the point that no language's triumph is permanent and unassailable. Like empires (and often with them), languages rise and fall, and English, Ostler contends, will be no exception.
B. English is the first truly global lingua franca, if by 'global' we mean 'used on every inhabited continent’. But in the smaller and less densely interconnected world of the past, many other languages had similar functions and enjoyed comparable prestige, is Modern lingua francas include French, German, Latin, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Yet these once-mighty languages are now largely confined to those territories where their modern forms are spoken natively. Though at the height of their power some acquired - and have kept - large numbers of native speakers outside their original homelands (as with Spanish and Portuguese in South America), few retain their old status.
C. To understand why the mighty fall, Ostler suggests we must look to the factors that enabled them to rise: most commonly these are conquest, commerce and conversion. Conquered or subordinated peoples learn (or are obliged to learn) the languages of their overlords; traders acquire the languages that give them access to markets; converts adopt the languages of their new religion. But these ways of recruiting speakers are not conducive to permanent attachment. The learned language is not valued for its own sake, but only for the benefits that are seen to flow from it, and only for as long as those benefits outweigh the costs. When new conquerors arrive, their subjects switch to new lingua francas. Old empires break up and their lingua francas are abandoned, while the spread of a new religion may advance a language or conversely weaken it. And always there is the resentment generated by dependence on a language which has to be learned, and therefore favours elites over those without access to schooling. Prestigious lingua francas are socially divisive, and therefore unstable.
D. English in the global age is often portrayed as an exceptional case. Writers who take this view point out that English differs from previous lingua francas in two important ways; first, it has no serious competition, and second, although it was originally spread by conquest, commerce and missionaries, its influence no longer depends on coercion. Because of this, the argument runs, it will not suffer the fate of its predecessors. But Ostler thinks this argument underplays both the social costs of maintaining a lingua franca (it is not true that English is universally loved) and the deep, enduring loyalty people have to their native so tongues. For millennia we have been willing to compromise our linguistic loyalties in exchange for various rewards; but if the rewards could be had without the compromise, we would gladly lay our burden down. Ostler believes that we will soon be able to do that. English, he 65 suggests, will be the last lingua franca. As Anglo-American hegemony withers, the influence of English will decline; but what succeeds it will not be any other single language. Rather we will see a technologically-enabled return to a state of Babel. Thanks to advances in computer translation, ‘everyone will speak and write in whatever language they choose, and the world will understand.’
E. Here it might be objected that Ostler’s argument depends on an unrealistic techno-optimism, and puts too much emphasis on the supposed primeval bond between speakers and their mother tongues, which some would say is largely an invention of 19th-century European nationalism. But even if he is wrong to predict the return of Babel, I do not think he is wrong to argue that English's position as the premier medium of global exchange will not be maintained for ever. In the future, as in the past, linguistic landscapes can be expected to change in line with so political and economic realities. The Last Lingua Franca is not the easiest of reads: Ostler does not have the popularizer’s gift for uncluttered storytelling, and is apt to pile up details without much regard for what the non-specialist either needs to know or is capable of retaining. What he does offer, however, is a much- 85 needed challenge to conventional wisdom: informative, thought- provoking and refreshingly free from anglocentric cliches.
From The Guardian Review section
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PRACTICE TEST 4
Part 1: Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) according to the text. Write your answers (A, B, C or D) in the corresponding numbered boxes. (10pts) RUNNING WATER ON MARS
Photographic evidence suggests that liquid water once existed in great quantity on the surface of Mars. Two types of flow features are seen: runoff channels and outflow channels. Runoff channels are found in the southern highlands. These flow features are extensive systems - sometimes hundreds of kilometers in total length - of interconnecting, twisting channels that seem to merge into larger, wider channels. They bear a strong resemblance to river systems on Earth, and geologists think that they are dried-up beds of long-gone rivers that once carried rainfall on Mars from the mountains down into the valleys. Runoff channels on Mars speak of a time 4 billion years ago (the age of the Martian highlands), when the atmosphere was thicker, the surface warmer, and liquid water widespread.
Outflow channels are probably relics of catastrophic flooding on Mars long ago. They appear only in equatorial regions and generally do not form extensive interconnected networks. Instead, they are probably the paths taken by huge volumes of water draining from the southern highlands into the northern plains. The onrushing water arising from these flash floods likely also formed the odd teardrop
shaped “islands” (resembling the miniature versions seen in the wet sand of our beaches at low tide) that have been found on the plains close to the ends of the outflow channels. Judging from the width and depth of the channels, the flow rates must have been truly enormous - perhaps as much as a hundred times greater than the 105 tons per second carried by the great Amazon river. Flooding shaped the outflow channels approximately 3 billion years ago, about the same time as the northern volcanic plains formed.
Some scientists speculate that Mars may have enjoyed an extended early period during which rivers, lakes, and perhaps even oceans adorned its surface. A 2003 Mars Global Surveyor image shows what mission specialists think may be a delta - a fan-shaped network of channels and sediments where a river once flowed into a larger body of water, in this case a lake filling a crater in the southern highlands. Other researchers go even further, suggesting that the data provide evidence for large open expanses of water on the early Martian surface. A computer-generated view of the Martian north polar region shows the extent of what may have been an ancient ocean covering much of the northern lowlands. The Hellas Basin, which measures some 3,000 kilometers across and has a floor that lies nearly 9 kilometers below the basin’s rim, is another candidate for an ancient Martian sea.
These ideas remain controversial. Proponents point to features such as the terraced “beaches” shown in one image, which could conceivably have been left behind as a lake or ocean evaporated and the shoreline receded. But detractors maintain that the terraces could also have been created by geological activity, perhaps related to the geologic forces that depressed the Northern Hemisphere far below the level of the south, in which case they have nothing whatever to do with Martian water. Furthermore, Mars Global Surveyor data released in 2003 seem to indicate that the Martian surface contains too few carbonate rock layers - layers containing compounds of carbon and oxygen - that should have been formed in abundance in an ancient ocean. Their absence supports the picture of a cold, dry Mars that never experienced the extended mild period required to form lakes and oceans. However, more recent data imply that at least some parts of the planet did in fact experience long periods in the past during which liquid water existed on the surface.
Aside from some small-scale gullies (channels) found since 2000, which are inconclusive, astronomers have no direct evidence for liquid water anywhere on the surface of Mars today, and the amount of water vapor in the Martian atmosphere is tiny. Yet even setting aside the unproven hints of ancient oceans, the extent of the outflow channels suggests that a huge total volume of water existed on Mars in the past. Where did all the water go? The answer may be that virtually all the water on Mars is now locked in the permafrost layer under the surface, with more contained in the planet’s polar caps.
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1. The word “merge” in the passage is closest in meaning to _____.
A. expand B. separate C. straighten out D. combine 2. What does the discussion in paragraph 1 of runoff channels in the southern highlands suggest about Mars?
A. The atmosphere of Mars was once thinner than it is today.
B. Large amounts of rain once fell on parts of Mars.
C. The river systems of Mars were once more extensive than Earth’s.
D. The rivers of Mars began to dry up about 4 billion years ago.
3. The word “relics” in the passage is closest in meaning to _____.
A. remains B. sites C. requirements D. sources 4. In paragraph 2, why does the author include the information that 105 tons of water flow through the Amazon River per second?
A. To emphasize the great size of the volume of water that seems to have flowed through Mars’ outflow channels
B. To indicate data used by scientists to estimate how long ago Mars’ outflow channels were formed C. To argue that flash floods on Mars may have been powerful enough to cause tear-shaped “islands” to form
D. To argue that the force of flood waters on Mars was powerful enough to shape the northern volcanic plains
5. According to paragraph 2, all of the following are true of the outflow channels on Mars EXCEPT _____.
A. They formed at around the same time that volcanic activity was occurring on the northern plains. B. They are found only on certain parts of the Martian surface.
C. They sometimes empty onto what appear to have once been the wet sands of tidal beaches. D. They are thought to have carried water northward from the equatorial regions. 6. All of the following questions about geological features on Mars are answered in paragraph 3 EXCEPT _____.
A. What are some regions of Mars that may have once been covered with an ocean? B. Where do mission scientists believe that the river forming the delta emptied? C. Approximately how many craters on Mars do mission scientists believe may once have been lakes filled with water?
D. During what period of Mars’ history do some scientists think it may have had large bodies of water?
7. According to paragraph 3, images of Mars’ surface have been interpreted as support for the idea that _____.
A. a large part of the northern lowlands may once have been under water
B. the polar regions of Mars were once more extensive than they are now
C. deltas were once a common feature of the Martian landscape
D. the shape of the Hellas Basin has changed considerably over time
8. What can be inferred from paragraph 3 about liquid water on Mars?
A. If ancient oceans ever existed on Mars’ surface, it is likely that the water in them has evaporated by now.
B. If there is any liquid water at all on Mars’ surface today, its quantity is much smaller than the amount that likely existed there in the past.
C. Small-scale gullies on Mars provide convincing evidence that liquid water existed on Mars in the recent past.
D. The small amount of water vapor in the Martian atmosphere suggests that there has never been liquid water on Mars.
9. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the sentence in bold type in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information. A. But detractors argue that geological activity may be responsible for the water associated with the terraces.
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B. But detractors argue that the terraces may be related to geological forces in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, rather than to Martian water in the south.
C. But detractors argue that geological forces depressed the Northern Hemisphere so far below the level of the south that the terraces could not have been formed by water.
D. But detractors argue that the terraces may have been formed by geological activity rather than by the presence of water.
10. According to paragraph 4, what do the 2003 Global Surveyor data suggest
about Mars? A. Ancient oceans on Mars contained only small amounts of carbon.
B. The climate of Mars may not have been suitable for the formation of large bodies of water. C. Liquid water may have existed on some parts of Mars’ surface for long periods of time. D. The ancient oceans that formed on Mars dried up during periods of cold, dry weather
Part 2: Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. (10 pts)
BLUE-FOOTED BOOBIES 2
A Boobies are a small group of seabirds native to tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world. Their diet consists mainly of fish. They are specialized fish eaters feeding on small school fish like sardines, anchovies, mackerel, and flying fish. When their prey is in sight, they fold their long wings back around their streamlined bodies and plunge into the water from as high as 80 feet, so streamlined they barely make a splash. They travel in parties of about 12 to areas of water with large schools of small fish. When the lead bird sees a fish shoal in the water, it will signal the rest of the group and they will all dive together. Surprisingly, individuals do not eat with the hunting group, preferring to eat on their own, usually in the early morning or late afternoon.
B There are three varieties on the Galapagos: the blue-footed, red-footed, and masked boobies. They are all members of the same family, and are not only different in appearance but also in behaviours. The blue-footed and red-footed boobies mate throughout the year, while the masked boobies have an annual mating cycle that differs from island to island. All catch fish in a similar manner, but in different areas: the blue-footed booby does its fishing close to shore, while the masked booby goes slightly farther out, and the red-footed booby fishes at the farthest distances from shore.
C Although it is unknown where the name “Booby” emanates from, some conjecture it may come from the Spanish word for clown, “bobo”, meaning “stupid”. Its name was probably inspired by the bird’s clumsiness on land and apparently unwarranted bravery. The blue footed booby is extremely vulnerable to human visitors because it does not appear to fear them. Therefore these birds received such name for their clumsiness on land in which they were easily, captured, killed, and eaten by humans.
D The blue-footed booby’s characteristic feet play a significant part in their famous courtship ceremony, the ‘booby dance’. The male walks around the female, raising his bright blue feet straight up in the air, while bringing his ‘shoulders’ towards the ground and crossing the bottom tips of his wings high above the ground. Plus he’ll raise his bill up towards the sky to try to win his mate over. The female may also partake in these activities – lifting her feet, sky pointing, and of course squawking at her mate. After mating, another ritual occurs – the nest-building which ironically is never used because they nest on the bare ground. When the female is ready to lay her eggs, they scrape the existing nest away so she can nest on exposed ground. Sun-baked islands form the booby’s breeding grounds. When ready the female Blue Footed Booby lays one to three eggs.
E After mating, two or three eggs are laid in a shallow depression on flat or gently sloping ground. Both male and female take turns incubating the eggs. Unlike most birds, booby doesn’t develop brood patches (areas of bare skin on the breast) to warm the eggs during incubation. Instead, it uses its broad webbed feet, which have large numbers of prominent blood vessels, to transmit heat essential for incubation. The eggs are thick-shelled so they can withstand the full weight of an incubating bird.
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F After hatching, the male plays a major role in bringing fish home. He can bring back a constant supply of small fish for the chicks, which must be fed continuously. The reason is that the male has a longer tail than the female in relation to his body size, which makes him able to execute shallower dives and to feed closer to shore. Then the female takes a greater part as time proceeds. Sooner or later, the need to feed the young becomes greater than the need to protect them and both adults must fish to provide enough.
G When times are good, the parents may successfully fledge all three chicks, but, in harder times, they may still lay as many eggs yet only obtain enough food to raise one. The problem is usually solved by the somewhat callous-sounding system of “opportunistic sibling murder.” The first-born chick is larger and stronger than its nest mate(s) as a result of hatching a few days earlier and also because the parents feed the larger chick. If food is scarce, the first born will get more food than its nest mate(s) and will outcompete them, causing them to starve. The above system optimizes the reproductive capacity of the blue-foot in an unpredictable environment. The system ensures that, if possible, at least one chick will survive a period of shortage rather than all three dying of starvation under a more ‘humane’ system.
Choose the correct heading for questions 1-6 from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-ix, next to Questions 1-6.
Questions 7-10: Complete the summary below, using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the reading passage for each answer.
The courtship of the Blue-footed Booby consists of the male flaunting his blue feet and dancing to impress the female. During the dance, the male will spread his wings and stamp his feet on the ground with his bills (7) ……………………. After mating, the booby’s unusual demeanor continues with ritual (8) …………………… that really serves no purpose. When the female Booby lays eggs, the parental boobies incubate the eggs beneath their (9) …………………… which contain (10) …………………… to transmit the heat, because of the lack of brood patches.
Part 3. Answer questions 1-10, by referring to the magazine article in which four successful career women talk about emigrating to New Zealand. (10pts)
A Nicky Meiring B Jenny Orr
C Sarah Hodgett D Lucy Kramer
Which woman ……….
1. mentions a negative point about a job she has had?
2. explains an advantage of choosing to pursue her career in New Zealand?
3. appreciates the approach to achieving goals in New Zealand?
4. expresses a sense of regret about leaving her country?
5. appreciates the honesty she feels exists in New Zealand?
6. denies conforming to a certain stereotype?
7. appreciates New Zealand for its sense of calm and normality?
8. mentions her move to a different area in the same field?
9. states that her original nationality puts her in an advantageous position?
10. recommends that New Zealanders take more pride in their country?
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THE BRAIN GAIN
With New Zealand becoming renowned as a great place to live, it was the first-choice destination for a new generation of talented migrants looking for a better life. Sharon Stephenson talks to four of them.
A Nicky Meiring, Architect
Listen to Nicky Meiring talk about South Africa and it soon becomes evident that she’s mourning for a country she once called home. ‘The current economic situation has made South Africa quite a hard place to live in,’ she says, ‘but I do miss it.’ Nicky first arrived in Auckland in 1994 and got a job in an architectural practice in Auckland where she soon settled in. She says ‘New Zealand often feels like utopia. I just love the tranquility and the fact you can lead a safe and ordinary life.’ She lives and works from a renovated factory where her mantelpiece is littered with awards for the design of her summer house on Great Barrier Island. ‘Although the design of buildings is fairly universal, houses here are generally constructed of timber as opposed to brick and when it comes to the engineering of buildings, I have to take great heed of earthquakes which isn’t an issue in South Africa,’ she says. ‘But the very fact that my training and points of reference are different means I have something to offer. And I’m so glad I have the opportunity to leave my stamp on my new country.’
B Jenny Orr, Art Director
American Jenny Orr’s southern accent seems more at home in the movies than in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington. ‘I’m from Alabama, but no, we didn’t run around barefoot and my father didn’t play the banjo!’ she jokes, in anticipation of my preconceptions. Having worked in corporate design for ten years in the USA, she was after a change and thought of relocating to New Zealand. It didn’t take long for her to land a job with an Auckland design firm, where she was able to gain experience in an unfamiliar but challenging area of design - packaging - and before long, she was headhunted to a direct marketing agency which recently transferred her to Wellington. While she admits she could have the same salary and level of responsibility at home, ‘it would probably have been harder to break into this kind of field. I’m not saying I couldn’t have done it, but it may have taken longer in the US because of the sheer number of people paying their dues ahead of me.’ Ask Jenny how she’s contributing to this country’s ‘brain gain’ and she laughs. ‘I don’t see myself as being more talented or intelligent but opposing views are what make strategies, concepts and designs better and I hope that’s what I bring.’
C Sarah Hodgett, Creative Planner
What happens when all your dreams come true? Just ask Sarah Hodgett. Sarah says that she had always dreamed of a career in advertising. ‘But I was from the wrong class and went to the wrong university. In the UK, if you’re working class you grow up not expecting greatness in your life. You resign yourself to working at the local factory and knowing your place.’ New Zealand, on the other hand, allowed her to break free of those shackles. ‘It’s a land of opportunity. I quickly learned that if you want to do something here, you just go for it, which is an attitude I admire beyond belief.’ Within a month of arriving, she’d landed a job in customer servicing with an advertising agency. Then, when an opening in research came up, she jumped at the chance. ‘My job is to conduct research with New Zealanders,’ she explains. ‘So I get to meet people from across the social spectrum which is incredibly rewarding.’ Being a foreigner certainly works in her favour, says Sarah. ‘Because a lot of my research is quite personal, respondents tend to see me as impartial and open-minded and are therefore more willing to share their lives with me.’ She certainly sees New Zealand in a good light. ‘I wish New Zealanders could see their country as I do. That’s why it saddens me that they don’t think they’re good enough on the global stage.’
D Lucy Kramer, School Director
Born in Sydney, Australia, Lucy Kramer left for London when she was 23 to further her career as a stockbroker. ‘London certainly lived up to my expectations and I had a very exciting, very hectic lifestyle,’ Lucy explains. But after four years she felt burnt out and was becoming increasingly disillusioned with her job. ‘People at work were far too competitive for my liking,’ she says. It was at
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this time she made two life-changing decisions. ‘I signed up for a teacher- training course and shortly after that met my partner, Graeme. He asked me to come back to New Zealand with him and I didn’t hesitate.’ It wasn’t long before she found work in a large Auckland school and, since then, she has rapidly worked her way up to a management position. ‘It’s fair to say I’m not earning what I used to but my New Zealand colleagues are much more easy-going. A good atmosphere more than makes up for the drop in salary. Another thing that impresses me is that you can leave your stuff on a seat in a cafe and it’ll still be there half an hour later. People are pretty trustworthy here. Sometimes it bothers me that we’re so remote -you can feel a bit cut off from what’s going on in the rest of the world, but on the whole, I’d say it’s one of the best moves I ever made.’
PRACTICE TEST 5
Part 1: Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) according to the text. Write your answers (A, B, C or D) in the corresponding numbered boxes. (10pts) When people learn to play video games, they are learning a new literacy. Of course, this is not the way the word “literacy” is normally used. Traditionally, people think of literacy as the ability to read and write. Why, then, should we think of literacy more broadly, in regard to video games or anything else, for that matter? There are two reasons.
First, in the modem world, language is not the only important communicational system. Today images, symbols, graphs, diagrams, artifacts, and many other visual symbols are particularly significant. Thus, the idea of different types of “visual literacy” would seem to be an important one. For example, being able to “read” the images in advertising is one type of visual literacy. And, of course, there are different ways to read such images, ways that are more or less aligned with the intentions and interests of the advertisers. Knowing how to read interior designs in homes, modernist art in museums, and videos on MTV are other forms of visual literacy.
Furthermore, very often today words and images of various sorts are juxtaposed and integrated in a variety of ways. In newspapers and magazines as well as in textbooks, images take up more and more of the space alongside words. In fact, in many modem high school and college textbooks in the sciences images not only take up more space, they now carry meanings that are independent of the words in the text. If you can’t read these images, you will not be able to recover their meanings from the words in the text as was more usual in the past. In such multimodal texts (texts that mix words and images), the images often communicate different things from the words. And the combination of the two modes communicates things that neither of the modes does separately. Thus, the idea of different sorts of multimodal literacy seems an important one. Both modes and multimodality go far beyond images and words to include sounds, music, movement, bodily sensations, and smells.
None of this news today, of course. We very obviously live in a world awash with images. It is our first answer to the question why we should think of literacy more broadly. The second answer is this: Even though reading and writing seem so central to what literacy means traditionally, reading and writing are not such general and obvious matters as they might at first seem. After all, we never just read or write; rather, we always read or write something in some way.
So there are different ways to read different types of texts. Literacy is multiple, then, in the sense that the legal literacy needed for reading law books is not the same as the literacy needed for reading physics texts or superhero comic books. And we should not be too quick to dismiss the latter form of literacy. Many a superhero comic is replete with post-Freudian irony of a sort that would make a modem literary critic's heart beat fast and confuse any otherwise normal adult.
Literacy, then, even as traditionally conceived to involve only print, is not a unitary thing but a multiple matter. There are, even in regard to printed texts and even leaving aside images and multimodal texts, different “literacies.”
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Once we see this multiplicity of literacy (literacies), we realize that when we think about reading and writing, we have to think beyond print. Reading and writing in any domain, whether it is law, rap songs, academic essays, superhero comics, or whatever, are not just ways of decoding print, they are also caught up with and in social practices... Video games are a new form of art. They will not replace books; they will sit beside them, interact with them, and change them and their role in society in various ways, as indeed, they are already doing strongly with movies. (Today many movies are based on video games and many more are influenced by them.) We have no idea yet how people “read” video games, what meanings they make from them. Still less do we know how they will “read” them in the future.
1. According to the first paragraph, the traditional definition of “literacy” is ______. A. the ability to analyze literature B. the ability comprehend basic cultural cues C. the ability to read and write D. the ability to compose poetry 2. All are mentioned as being types of “visual literacy” EXCEPT ______.
A. musical tones B. interior design C. diagrams D. Modem Art 3. An example from a science textbook of the phenomenon the author describes in the third paragraph could be ______.
A. a genetic tree that coincides with the discussion of specific mammal classes in the text B. a diagram of a specific chemical reaction that is used to explain a broad definition in the text C. an illustration of a plant cycle that accompanies a chapter on photosynthesis D. a cartoon that references the same methods discussed in the text about laboratory safety 4. What is an example of a “multimodal” text?
A. A dictionary B. A movie script C. A photo album
D. An art book that describes the art as well as reproduces images of the original prints 5. The phrase “beyond print” is closest in meaning to ______.
A. reading to understand the underlying meanings and themes of the author’s words-not just a literal interpretation
B. reading text that defines different types of wheat and grains
C. to read the text from right to left rather than left to right
D. to read books that use recycled paper and other green alternatives
6. In the seventh paragraph, the author suggests that literacy is multiple, meaning that ______. A. to be “literate” can mean participating in any form of expression
B. one’s literacy increases exponentially as greater mastery of reading and writing is achieved C. different genres and modes of expression require different background knowledge and perspectives to understand them
D. literacy can only be gained by exploring every type of media and expression 7. Why does the author give the example of superhero comics to explain multiple literacies? A. To explain that comic books are written for children and purely for entertainment. They require only a basic knowledge of the action that occurs in the story
B. To once again refer to his earlier points about “multimodal” texts
C. To insist that even when an author may intend multiple meanings and interpretations, they are rarely successful in conveying those to readers
D. Things that may seem on the surface to be only meant for a particular group of people can actually have very profound meanings to those who possess other types of literacy
8. The author suggests that all of the following require different types of literacy and the ability to decode meaning EXCEPT ______
A. Rap music B. Comic books C. Academic papers D. Symphonies 9. The author says that video games ______.
A. are not yet entirely understood in terms of literacy, but are already impacting other forms of expression such as filmmaking
B. are unrealistic and should not fall into the same categories as the other texts he describes C. are too violent to risk experimenting with for the purposes of understanding literacy
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D. are irrelevant in academic discussion because no one has yet determined how to explain the ways that people understand them
10. What would be the most logical information for the next paragraph to contain if the article continued?
A. A technological definition of video games, how they are made, and how they are played. B. A historical explanation of the very first video game and its evolution.
C. Examples of the way that some people currently interpret video games and what they mean to them.
D. A price comparison of video game consoles and whether or not quality has a direct impact on literacy.
Part 2: Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. (10 pts)
A. Our daily lives are largely made up of contacts with other people, during which we are constantly making judgments of their personalities and accommodating our behavior to them in accordance with these judgments. A casual meeting of neighbors on the street, an employer giving instructions to an employee, a mother telling her children how to behave, a journey in a train where strangers eye one another without exchanging a word - all these involve mutual interpretations of personal qualities.
B. Success in many vocations largely depends on skill in sizing up people. It is important not only to such professionals as the clinical psychologist, the psychiatrist or the social worker, but also to the doctor or lawyer in dealing with their clients, the businessman trying to outwit his rivals, the salesman with potential customers, the teacher with his pupils, not to speak of the pupils judging their teacher. Social life, indeed, would be impossible if we did not, to some extent, understand, and react to the motives and qualities of those we meet; and clearly we are sufficiently accurate for most practical purposes, although we also recognize that misinterpretations easily arise - particularly on the part of others who judge us!
C. Errors can often be corrected as we go along. But whenever we are pinned down to a definite decision about a person, which cannot easily be revised through his ‘feed-back’, the inadequacies of our judgments become apparent. The hostess who wrongly thinks that the Smiths and the Joneses will get on well together can do little to retrieve the success of her party. A school or a business may be saddled for years with an undesirable member of staff, because the selection committee which interviewed him for a quarter of an hour misjudged his personality.
D. Just because the process is so familiar and taken for granted, it has aroused little scientific curiosity until recently. Dramatists, writers and artists throughout the centuries have excelled in the portrayal of character, but have seldom stopped to ask how they, or we, get to know people, or how accurate is our knowledge. However, the popularity of such unscientific systems as Lavater’s physiognomy in the eighteenth century, Gall's phrenology in the nineteenth, and of handwriting interpretations by graphologists, or palm-readings by gipsies, show that people are aware of weaknesses in their judgments and desirous of better methods of diagnosis. It is natural that they should turn to psychology for help, in the belief that psychologists are specialists in ‘human nature.’
E. This belief is hardly justified: for the primary aim of psychology had been to establish the general laws and principles underlying behavior and thinking, rather than to apply these to concrete problems of the individual person. A great many professional psychologists still regard it as their main function to study the nature of learning, perception and motivation in the abstracted or average human being, or in lower organisms, and consider it premature to put so young a science to practical uses. They would disclaim the possession of any superior skill in judging their fellow- men. Indeed, being more aware of the difficulties than is the non-psychologist, they may be more reluctant to commit themselves to definite predictions or decisions about other people. Nevertheless, to an increasing extent psychologists are moving into educational, occupational, clinical and other applied fields, where they are called upon
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to use their expertise for such purposes as fitting the education or job to the child or adult, and the person to the job. Thus a considerable proportion of their activities consists of personality assessment.
F. The success of psychologists in personality assessment has been limited, in comparison with what they have achieved in the fields of abilities and training, with the result that most people continue to rely on unscientific methods of assessment. In recent times there has been a tremendous amount of work on personality tests, and on carefully controlled experimental studies of personality. Investigations of personality by Freudian and other 'depth' psychologists have an even longer history. And yet psychology seems to be no nearer to providing society with practicable techniques which are sufficiently reliable and accurate to win general acceptance. The soundness of the methods of psychologists in the field of personality assessment and the value of their work are under constant fire from other psychologists, and it is far from easy to prove their worth.
G. The growth of psychology has probably helped responsible members of society to become more aware of the difficulties of assessment. But it is not much use telling employers, educationists and judges how inaccurately they diagnose the personalities with which they have to deal unless psychologists are sure that they can provide something better. Even when university psychologists themselves appoint a new member of staff. They almost always resort to the traditional techniques of assessing the candidates through interviews, past records, and testimonials, and probably make at least as many bad appointments as other employers do. However, a large amount of experimental development of better methods has been carried out since 1940 by groups of psychologists in the Armed Services and in the Civil Service, and by such organizations as the (British) National Institute of Industrial Psychology and the American Institute of Research.
Choose the correct heading for questions 1-6 from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-ix, next to Questions 1-6.
Question 7. Choose THREE letters A-F. Write your answers in box 7. Which THREE of the following are stated about psychologists involved in personality assessment?
A. ‘Depth’ psychologists are better at it than some other kinds of psychologist. B. Many of them accept that their conclusions are unreliable.
C. They receive criticism from psychologists not involved in the field.
D. They have made people realize how hard the subject is.
E. They have told people what not to do, rather than what they should do.
F. They keep changing their minds about what the best approaches are.
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Questions 8-10. Do the following statements agree with the views of the writ
er in the Reading Passage. In boxes 8-10 write:
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
8. Unscientific systems of personality assessment have been of some use.
9. People make false assumptions about the expertise of psychologists.
10. It is likely that some psychologists are no better than anyone else at assessing personality.
Part 3. Read the following article about how to be environmentally friendly and decide in which paragraph (A-E) the following are mentioned. For each question 1-10, write your answer (A, B, C, D or E) in the corresponding numbered boxes. Write one letter for each answer. The paragraphs may be chosen more than once. (10pts)
A. FAIR TRADE
Farmers in developing countries are some of the most vulnerable people on earth, prey to world commodity markets, middle men and the weather. So-called “fair trade” arrangements guarantee cooperative groups a price above the world market and a bonus on top. The growing fair-trade market has distributed hundreds of millions of pounds to more than 50 million people worldwide. But critics say that fair trade will never lift a country out of poverty; indeed, it may keep it there, because the money generated from sales goes almost in its entirety to rich countries which promote the products. As a simple guide, only about 5% of the sale price of a fair-trade chocolate bar may actually go to the poor country.
B. ORGANIC FOOD
For food to be organic it must be free of added chemicals, both in the growing of the food and in the killing of the pests that might damage the crop. In a world where many manufactured chemicals have never been properly tested for safety, this is a very big selling point. Parents are thus prepared to pay a premium for organic food, especially when chemicals suspected of causing a variety of problems have been found, albeit in tiny quantities, in most children’s blood. The problem is that many farmers have not switched to organic in sufficient numbers to satisfy this growing market. As a result, supermarkets are often forced to fly vegetables as they can label “organic” halfway round the world, at a great cost to the planet in extra greenhouse gases. Environmentalists are now urging shoppers to buy locally produced vegetables, even if they are not organic and have been sprayed with pesticides.
C. BEING CARBON NEUTRAL
If you want to make yourself feel better about the planet, there are lots of ways for you to ease your conscience by becoming “carbon neutral”. One of the most appealing methods is to pay for someone to plant trees, preferably creating or regenerating new forests. The theory is that trees grow by absorbing carbon dioxide and giving out oxygen, storing the carbon in their trunks. But woods and forests create their own mini-climate, which collects and stores water and creates rainclouds. Added to this, there is the potential problem that planting trees often releases carbon stored in the soil - and what happens if the forests catch fire, or are chopped down and harvested for timber? Another and perhaps better solution might be to invest in small-scale hydro-electric schemes, so that people who live in the Himalayas, for example, and currently do not have electricity, can develop a 21st century lifestyle without polluting the planet.