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SECTION I. LISTENING (5.0 POINTS)
INTRODUCTION:
There are 4 parts of the section.
You'll hear each part twice.
There is a prompting sound at the beginning and end of each part.
Part 1. Questions 1–5. (1.0 point - 0.2/each)
Listen to a radio and decide whether the following statements are True (T) or False (F) or Not Given (NG) according to what you hear. Write your answer in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Part 2. Questions 6–10. (1.0 point - 0.2/each)
Listen to part of a radio programme and answer the questions. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER taken from the recording for each answer.
How do people describe Robert Mueller as a prosecutor?
In Vietnam, which unit was Mueller in charge of?
What did Mueller possess in private practice?
At which occation did President Obama move for special two-year extension?
What word is used to describe people who do not land trust on Robert Mueller?
Part 3. Questions 11–15. (1.0 point - 0.2/each)
Listen to a conversation and choose the correct answer A, B, C or D which fits best according to what you hear. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Contemporary progressison in terms of pilgrimage mentioned in the first place is:
A. augmentation in the quantity of guidebooks.
B. offering in certain emplacements has been ameliorated.
C. an escalation in the kinds of audacious holidays.
D. A number of tourist attractions have become chintzier.
The most earth-shattering constituent when choosing a guidebook according to John is
A. The level of excellence in utilizing illustrating techniques.
B. A solid foundation of expertise of the writer.
C. The publishing company’s eminence.
D. Detail awareness.
What does John say he has found out from making comparisons of different guidebooks?
A. Places are depicted with a relatively uncommon style
B. Some are not really gratifying to read
C. The thought of engrossing places is completely forgotten
D. Some find it hard to demonstrate desireable information
What does the speaker say on the data in Blueprint Guides?
A. The level of detail might be overwhelming
B. It takes the guise of routine storytelling much too often
C. Tracking down what you require might be arduous at times
D. Some of it may be impenetrable
According to John, it is necessary that the writing style in guidebooks be?
A. Unprejudiced and dispassionate
B. Straightforward to the reader
C. Unceremonious and commanding
D. Vicacious all the times.
Part 4. Questions 16–25. (2.0 points - 0.2/each)
Listen to a talk about tornadoes and complete the following summary. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken from the recording for each blank. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Translators (16)_________________ amateurishly rampantly on social media, one of Junji Ito’s works titled ‘The Enigma of Amigara Fault’, is in some way a manifestation of survival nightmare.
His series ‘Uzumaki’ portrayed a myriad of grotesque concepts: a juvenile with a coiffure of (17)_________________, a teacher with snail-shaped figuration, and constantly rolling eyes.
In ‘Wooden Spirit’, a foreign woman stayed at a house of a girl and her father, who then finds a(n) (18)_________________ of her attached to a rafter after seeing her bizarre behaviors.
Another work named ‘Futon’ narrated a young man incurring tribulations of his own (19)_________________, perfidy and psychopathy.
The sociopathic protagonist of Dissection-chan has a (20)_________________, deliriously haunted by corpses but later the plot twist compromises the fine line between human and non-human.
While H.P Lovecraft’s brainchilds are representation of white supremacism, embodied by the (21)_________________ maddened by the existence of unknown creatures, Ito watches vicariously, bewitched yet equivocal.
‘Ero-guro’ or ‘erotic grotesque nonsense’ is a Japanese long-established cultural movement luxuriating in (22)_________________, a cousin of Edgar Allan Poe and Grand Guignol. These tropes often demonstrate (23)_________________ of Japan in the 1930s.
In the nigh last works of ‘Fragments of Horror’, a young devotee meets a (24)_________________ as she want to know where he derives his ideas from and is replied with an answer indicating an underground prison. Her final grisly countenance with bloated eyes, (25)_________________ and slug-like lolling tongue is evocative of an illustrator who concentrated on hideous caricatures.
Your answer here:
SECTION II. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (3.0 POINTS)
Part 1. For questions 26-45. (2.0 points - 0.1/each)
Choose the best answer (A, B, C, or D) to each of the following questions and write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
After all, he was denounced as ______ all art that exhibited clear sympathies or broadcast explicit messages.
A. larceny B. philistine C. scapegrace D. maverickI didn't hear what he said - he just ______ and walked off.
A. adjured B. stravaged C. harrumphed D. colluded
Counsel further contended that on the ______ evidence the debtor has an arguable claim that the solicitors were negligent in two respects.
A. proclamation B. affidavit C. corroboration D. avowal
We ______ the accounting system so that the value of equipment is updated automatically.
A. rejiggered B. doddered C. shuddered D. appareled
Surveys of galaxies show large voids with virtually nothing in them, and ______ and walls made up of clusters and superclusters.
A. constellations B. asteroids C. filaments D. equinoxes
Between them the sea came in from two directions, sending a constantly renewed ______ of breakers toward the beach.
A. chaperon B. chevre C. cheviot D. chevron
Some smiled and waved from the coaches as they were swept off under police ______ to small short-term processing centres in the four corners of France.
A. warden B. retinue C. cortege D. escort
With this mode of aesthetic production the concept of the ______ was reinvigorated much beyond the creation of a new style.
A. avant-garde B. billet-doux C. de rigueur D. bête noire
This functional justice may have been generally acceptable to ______ mariners.
A. precipitous B. litigious C. ubiquitous D. iniquitous
The lyrics are clearly devoid of the harshest, most ______ utterances; the song seems at times more a plea than an indictment.
A. parsimonious B. cacophonous C. acrimonious D. querulous
This is an important development, which allows litigants before domestic courts effectively to ______ the Commission.
A. fiat B. muster C. subpoena D. Supplication
I was ______ over Miss Talmadge to the point of idolatry.
A. booby B. spoony C. cooey D. gooky
Why is it that people who've given up smoking become so ______ and intolerant of other smokers?
A. evangelical B. evanescent C. evectional D. eviscerating
Apparently some men feel intimidated going into a room full of women. ______, some of our female readers might think.
A. Diddles B. Diddums C. Doldrums D. Dictums
The report ______ the benefits of the plan, but doesn’t say much about the costs.
A. plays up B. drives up C. parcels up D. levels up
After pointing out his teacher's mistake, he smiled like the cat that ate the ______.
A. strawberry B. canary C. pigeon D. cornbread
My newborn sure has a good pair of ______, especially at three in the morning!
A. wings B. lungs C. innings D. ears
I thought I'd never be able to pay off my student loans, but little strokes fell great ______, and after 20 years, I'm finally debt free.
A. oaks B. walnuts C. pines D. tulips
Until recent decades France's ______ education system kept the path open for bright pupils from humble backgrounds.
A. ceratopsian B. jubilarian C. egalitarian D. sesquipedalian
Each piece of the puzzle is created to ______ and fit perfectly with the other pieces.
A. interoperate B. interpolate C. interdigitate D. interrelate
Your answer here:
Part 2. For questions 46-55. (1.0 point - 0.1/each)
a. Word-form Passage. Write the correct form of each bracketed word in the numbered space provided in the column on the right.
b. Word-form Sentence. Write the correct form of each bracketed word in the numbered space provided in the column on the right.
SECTION III. READING (6.0 POINTS)
Part 1. For questions 56-65. (1.0 point - 0.1/each)
Read the passages below and decide which answer A, B, C or D best fits each gap. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Passage 1:
In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, I called on good-natured, (56) ______ old Simon Wheeler, and inquired after my friend's friend, Leonidas W. Smiley, as requested to do, and I (57) ______ append the result. I have a lurking suspicion that Leonidas W. Smiley is a myth; that my friend never knew such a (58) ______; and that he only (59) ______ that, if I asked old Wheeler about him, it would remind him of his infamous Jim Smiley, and he would go to work and bore me nearly to death with some (60) ______ reminiscence of him as long and tedious as it should be useless to me. If that was the design, it certainly succeeded.
A. sagacious B. erogenous C. garrulous D. bumptious
A. whereof B. hereunder C. hereunto D. thereof
A. persona B. personalty C. personality D. personage
A. conjectured B. denatured C. ligatured D. assured
A. hellish B. infernal C. chthonic D. dreary
Your answer here:
Passage 2:
Thish-yer Smiley had a mare – the boys called her the fifteen-minute (61) ______, but that was only in fun, you know, because, of course, she was faster than that and he used to win money on that horse, for all she was so slow and always had the asthma, or the (62) ______, or the consumption, or something of that kind. They used to give her two or three hundred yards start, and then pass her underway; but always at the (63) ______ of the race she'd get excited and desperate-like, and come (64) ______ and straddling up, and scattering her legs around limber, sometimes in the air, and sometimes out to one side amongst the fences, and kicking up m-o-r-e dust, and raising m-o-r-e racket with her coughing and sneezing and blowing her nose and always fetch up at the stand just about a neck ahead, as near as you could (65) ______ down.
A. hock B. nag C. sire D. hoof
A. distemper B. mildew C. eukaryote D. tapeworm
A. fag-end B. rear-end C. low-end D. loose-end
A. scudding B. careening C. disporting D. cavorting
A. cipher B. shoot C. dial D. damp
Your answer here:
Part 2. For questions 66-75. (1.0 point – 0.1/each)
Fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable word and write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Inflexible old salt becomes a (66) ______ in the nanoworld, stretching like taffy to more than twice its length, researchers report. The findings may lead to new approaches for making nanowires that could end up in solar cells or electronic (67) ______. The work also suggests that these ultra-tiny salt (68) ______ may already exist in sea spray and large underground salt deposits.
Metals such as gold or lead, in which (69) _______ angles are loosey-goosey, can stretch out at temperatures well below their (70) ______ points. But scientists don’t expect this superplasticity in a rigid, crystalline material like salt, Moore says.
This unusual behavior highlights that different (71) ______ rule the nanoworld, says theoretical physicist Krzysztof Kempa of Boston College. “Forget about gravity. It plays no role,” he says. Surface tension and (72) ______ forces are much more important at this scale.
Moore and his colleagues discovered salt’s (73) ______ accidently. They were investigating how water sticks to a surface such as salt and created a super-dry salt sample for testing. After cleaving a chunk of salt about the size of a sugar cube with a razor, the scientists guided a microscope that detects forces toward the (74) ______. When the tip was far away there was no measured force, but within about seven nanometers, a very strong attraction rapidly developed between the diamond tip of the microscope and the salt. The salt actually stretched out to (75) ______ on to the microscope tip. Using an electron microscope to see what was happening, the researchers observed the nanowires.
Your answer here:
Part 3. For questions 76-85. (1.0 point – 0.1/each)
Read an extract from an article and choose the answer A, B, C or D that fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Undercover journalism
Journalism is too small or too distant a word to cover it. It is theatre; there are no second takes. It is drama – it is improvisation, infiltration and psychological warfare. It can be destructive in itself before any print has seen the light of day. It is exhilarating, dangerous and stressful. It is the greatest job. It is my job.
I am an undercover reporter. For the past year or so, I have been a football hooligan, a care worker, a bodyguard and a fashion photographer. It is a strange life and difficult one. In the course of a day, I have assumed four different personalities, worn four different wardrobes and spoken four different street dialects, and left a little of me behind in each of those worlds. More important than this, though, are the experiences and emotions I’ve taken away with me. It’s hard to put a label on them. They have seeped in and floated out of my psyche, but somewhere in the backyard of my mind the footprints of this strange work are left behind.
I have as yet no real notion as to what, if any, long-term impact they will have. For the moment, I relish the shooting gallery of challenges that this madness has offered me. In the midst of all these acting roles and journalistic expeditions, I have endeavoured not to sacrifice too much of my real self. I have not gone native and I am still sane. At least for the moment.
In the course of any one investigation, you reveal yourself in conversation and etiquette, mannerism and delivery – of thousands of gesticulations and millions of words – and cover yourself with the embroidery of many different disguises. If one stitch is loose or one word misplaced, then everything could crash, and perhaps violently so.
Certainly, as a covert operator, the journalistic safe line is a difficult one to call. Every word you utter is precious, every phrase, insinuation and gesture has to be measured and considered in legal and ethical terms. Even the cadence of your voice has to be set to appropriate rhythms according to the assumed role, the landscape and the terrain of your undercover patch.
The golden rule is this: as an undercover reporter you must never be the catalyst for events that would not otherwise have occurred, had you not been there. The strict guidelines within broadcasting organisations about covert filming mean that, every time I go into the field, a BBC committee or compliance officer has to grant permission first. It’s a strange but necessary experience for someone like me, who operates on instinct and intuition, but it’s a marriage that works well.
The undercover reporter is a strange breed. There is no blueprint that exists. It is your own journalistic ethos and within those parameters you try to tread a safe line, both in terms of your journalism and personal safe-keeping. And of course, there’s a high price you pay for this kind work, home is now a BBC safe house. The only visitors to my bunker are work colleagues. It’s not a pleasant lifestyle, but I have taken on all the stories in the full knowledge of the risks involved.
Though I embarked upon my journey with enthusiasm and determination, the climate in which we undertake this journalistic and documentary mission is an increasingly hostile one. It is one in which covert filming has come under scrutiny because of concerns about fakery and deception and the featuring of hoax witnesses. Issues concerning privacy, the use of covert filming techniques across the media – from current affairs to the tabloid newspapers – and the way journalists work with these tools have been rigorously appraised. I personally welcome this scrutiny.
Hi-tech surveillance equipment allows me to tell the story as it unfolds, surrounded by its own props, revealing its own scars and naked sinews, and delivered in its own dialect. There is no distortion and only one editorial prism – mine. While the sophisticated technology allows a visual and aural presentation of events, mentally I rely on the traditional method of jotting things down to rationalise my thoughts and gain a coherent picture of all that I was involved in. This is my delivery system – how I narrate.
Inevitably the spotlight has shone on me but those who have worked on either paper trail investigations in newspapers or in television will know that it will fade. I am happy to return to the career of a desk journalist because I recognise that the tools we have used are tools of last resort. I’ll be returning to the more usual journalistic methods: telephone and computer notebook rather than secret cameras and hidden microphones. But the aim will be the same: to shed light into the darker corners of society where the vulnerable are most at risk.
Which of the following does the writer NOT suggest about his job in general?
A. Journalism is not truly a word to represent it.
B. Those involved hail from various occupations.
C. It entails people to act in different roles.
D. It has a miscellaneous collection of characteristics.
As implied by the author, what distinguishes undercover journalism from regular kinds?
A. The range of subjects it touches on
B. The effects of its destructive power
C. The degree of spontaneity in it
D. The harm that it can cause
What does the writer suggest about his attitude towards his job?
A. He has a recollection of most emotions triggered by it.
B. He attaches much of his own personality to the roles he assumes.
C. His interest in the job has been retained.
D. He abominates the ordeals involved in it.
What does the writer imply about undercover investigators?
A. They are required to be circumspect so as not to conceal their identities.
B. They have to be cautious in order not to cling to a preplanned set of actions.
C. They should try not to be factors causing changes in events.
D. They need to be observant to the reactions of other people while conducting tasks.
The writer suggests that undercover investigators ______
A. have to live with the consequences of exposing themselves.
B. resent sticking to rules laid down by their employers.
C. tend to be a similar kind of person.
D. operate according to a similar code of conduct.
As indicated by the writer, tribulations arise within the profession because _________
A. the application of cutting-edge technologies is conducive to attempts to falsify information.
B. covert filming has been put into question following worries about the effects of documentaries.
C. deceptive testimonies have emerged to degrade the quality of covert filming.
D. how journalists make use of their equipment has come under scrutiny.
Regarding the harsher working environment in his profession, it can be implied that the author ______
A. harbours feelings of repulsion at it.
B. displays embrace of it.
C. finds it rather disconcerting.
D. expresses insouciance towards it.
What can be inferred about the method used by the author while working as a reporter?
A. He embellishes the stories with details not clearly reflecting what happened
B. He allows technology to cater for every stage of the process.
C. He uses writing as a way of brainstorming ideas and approaching what he would like to include.
D. He lets the events speak for themselves with the aid of modern technology.
What does the passage suggest about the author’s intentions for the future?
A. He will adopt the more traditional work as a journalist.
B. He will make attempts to return to normalcy after all events.
C. He will have recourse to the tools used when there are no alternatives.
D. He will go to some lengths to direct the limelight away from him.
The writer sees the primary aim of journalism as ______
A. combating the corruption within the society.
B. enlightening people about the disadvantage of the weak.
C. highlighting causes of present-day issues.
D. unraveling the mystery of criminal cases.
Your answer here:
Part 4. For questions 86-92. (0.7 point - 0.1/each)
You are going to read an extract from a magazine. Seven paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap (86-92). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.
Great explorations
When I left that nautical shop in Ushuaia, Argentina with just a few postcards, I had no idea how much I would regret it later. I couldn't imagine the real need for a human being to have a nautical chart of Cape Horn, the southernmost point on the whole planet. Mainly since this would only become a reality after three intense days of navigating the waters that changed the history of the world and viewing the same landscapes that Charles Darwin and Ferdinand Magellan saw.
There was nothing ordinary about that chart. The pen scratches showed the exact route that the vessel had taken in the first stretch of the course, which went from the capital of the archipelago to Cape Horn in Drake Passage where fearsome waters must be overcome to reach the Antarctic. There were over ten nationalities occupying the sixty-four cabins on the boat, which, with its siblings, exclusively covers the extreme south of Patagonia. They're known as expedition cruises and feature lectures on fauna and flora and documentaries on Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica.
'Ninety dollars: said the Frenchman. He was on his honeymoon and his reason for wanting to buy the map was a strong one. His bride, who had always dreamed of spending her post-nuptial days in Madagascar, wasn't able to hold him back since she was napping in the cabin.
The first expedition to reach Cape Horn in 1616 was composed of two ships and eighty-seven men. It left from Holland in 1615 with the mission of finding a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific that could serve as an alternative to the Strait of Magellan, discovered in 1520 and monopolized by the East India Company.
The island where we disembarked on that morning didn't seem like the kind of place where no less than 500 shipwrecks took place. It was cold and windy but the sun provided a more hospitable atmosphere. On one of its extremities there was a monument; on the other, a lighthouse which is home to traffic controller Patricio Ubal, his wife and their children.
A seasick Charles Darwin did not disembark at Cape Horn. It was 1832 and the young, inexperienced British naturalist had joined the second expedition of Captain Robert Fitzroy on his frigate, the Beagle, in exchange for financial help from his father. On board were also three natives of Tierra del Fuego whom Fitzroy had taken to England on his last voyage. The most famous of these was Yamana Jeremy Button.
The glaciers there remain in the same place, however; exactly as Darwin saw them. The deep blue of the millennial ice is as impressive as the ferocious noise coming from the huge chunks that break off that living mass. It is an unforgettable spectacle.
The auction had come to an end, but our voyage had not. The next morning, hours before the boat docked in Punta Arenas, we visited the Magellanic penguins on Isla Magdalena. This was the moment Sao Paulo native Lidia Senatore had been waiting for. Coincidentally, the nautical chart auctioned off had been purchased by her for $150. Luckily for Francois, Valentine never heard about that.
___________________________________________________________________________
Missing paragraphs
Ushuaia is an unusual place. Half an hour from the city centre, the Cerro Castor ski station is the southernmost in the world and runs until the end of October, when all the others in South America have already closed and the European stations haven't even opened.
'Going once, going twice.. .' In a fit of obsession, Francois raises his hand, 'sold to the gentleman for $250.' Afterwards Valentine snorts: 'How can you pay $250 for a piece of paper?'
All the people gathered that night in one of the lounges of the Chilean boat Mare Australis had been through this experience and now, on the last night of our journey, were staring at the auctioneer with a genuine greed for that tube with the paper inside. I couldn't help myself. I started off the bidding.
These are fascinating people. The coldness with which his mother received her son two years after his disappearance provoked reports of amazement from Darwin, who witnessed this at Isla Navarino, where we disembarked that afternoon. But, instead of the people who used to live there, we only came across the tracks of beavers.
'How much is the chart of such an historic voyage worth?' chanted the auctioneer in order to raise the bidding, which had already passed $200. I'd stopped at 150 but the Frenchman and the table of Americans showed no signs of giving up.
'Cape Horn was a dream for me. You can't go any further. It's difficult and dangerous to get there and I wanted to share this with her,' lawyer Francois Marty told me later. He only told his new wife Valentine that they were going to South America. 'Pack a bag for every season, everything from a bikini to ski clothes,' he advised her.
This is just a temporary position - it lasts less than a year - but a solitary one. It means having to pass the entire time isolated from the world, without seeing civilization and not even being visited by it during the winter months.
More common for visitors are the itineraries which peruse the Patagonian canals further north. Other ships cover an even wider course but they don't pass by Cape Horn. And it was this mythical little island that had attracted those who were in that room.
Part 5. For questions 93-102. (1.0 point - 0.1/each)
You are going to read an extract from a review of a book on philosophy. For questions 93-102, choose from the sections (A-E). The sections may be chosen more than once.
Switch on your brain
A book seeks to explain how our minds work through the maze of consciousness - Eric Banks
Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking by Daniel C.Dennett
A
You don't have to conduct a thought experiment to see why some philosophers want to write for an audience cheerfully indifferent to the ways of the seminar room and the strictures of the refereed journal. Beyond the fame and fortune, perhaps more important is the sense that if one's work is worth doing at all, it ought to reach the widest possible audience. Some, I imagine, also relish the bonus frisson of mixing it up in the rowdy rough-and-tumble of the public arena. If you're like Daniel C. Dennett - one of whose many mantras is Gore Vidal's “It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail." - what's the point of felling the philosopher's tree if there's no one to hear it? Since the publication of his
book Consciousness Explained in 1991, Dennett has gladly risen to the challenge, merrily taking on all comers, in works that play to a packed house most philosophers could never dream of.
B
For Dennett, the experience of communicating to a broad readership his brawny materialist agenda has an ancillary and less obvious boon. Specialists, he writes, tend to under-explain to one another the very terms of their discussions. These experts benefit from translating their respective position down, as it were, so that they might be presented to 'curious non-experts', as Dennett puts it in Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. They will be forced to think anew and paradoxically think harder. The notion that a 'position' might get fine-tuned just as neatly in the imagined company of a well-intentioned fast learner as it would among scholarly peers is ingrained in Dennett's go-go style of doing philosophy winner-take-all stakes. As set out in Intuition Pumps, his narrative approach, plain-talk prose and gotcha argument stoppers will prove as roundly appealing to some as it will seem pandering to others.
C
Part of Dennett's role in Intuition Pumps is to serve as a kind of design engineer. With the concept of 'intuition pump', he repurposes the thought experiment - a form of argumentation of ancient and venerable purpose in philosophy ( and in other disciplines, especially physics) - in order to transform its somewhat neutral-sounding disposition into a power tool, one that addresses a basic question: Is it designed well enough to get the job done? First renamed ’intuition pumps' in The Mind's I, the hybrid work Dennett coproduced with Douglas Hofstadter, these narrative devices can condense a complex set of propositions and suppositions into an imaginable story that summarises or illustrates a position. Hence their extreme popularity in the history of philosophy, from Plato's cave to Parfit's amoeba They can be positive or critical, launching a new idea or yanking the rug from under someone else's pet position. Either way, such thought experiments are designed to jolt the reader's sense of intuition.
D
But what is the difference between a good intuition pump and a flawed one? Searle's Chinese Room, famously objected to by Dennett, has spawned scores of counter-thought experiments, replicating itself in many variations; by the mid-90s, Steven Pinker commented that it had become the source of at least a hundred papers. It has allowed articulations of positions from a vast number of academic fields, from proponents of Al to linguists, and generated commentary on semantics, consciousness and evolution. Sounds like a pretty fecund tool for thinking to me! But for the budding philosophy student reading Intuition Pumps, Dennett reserves the right to select the hammer and pick the gauge of nail. But what good is it to present this book as a collection of helpful 'tools for thinking' when it turns out the only successful tools just happen to run on precisely the same voltage as Dennett's own particular theories and propositions?
E
Intuition Pumps is valuable in providing an overview of a body of recent work in the philosophy of mind, but it also suffers from Dennett's penchant for cleverness which causes it to become tiresome and tacky. He returns to a long-ago verbal conflict with Stepan Jay Gould to discuss rhetorical sleights of hand, and even coins a new word to describe the tendency to advance straw-man arguments and false dichotomies - 'Goulding'. How is that a better ‘thinking tool'? He mocks philosopher Ned Block and condescendingly takes the opportunity to chide Thomas Nagel for not consulting 'the experts' on evolutionary biology. All this sour score-settling with Dennett’s philosophical peers is definitely less witty than I imagine he takes it to be. But in the spirit of Dennett's tactic, I’d offer one historical vignette that characterizes his frequent summoning of an army of scientists at his back, and call that future-perfect feint a Ledru-Rollin. That would be in honour of the hectoring French propagandist of 1848 who famously bellowed, 'There go my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader!'
Part 6. For questions 103-115. (1.3 points - 0.1/each)
Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
Seed Vault Guards Resources For The Future
Fiona Harvey paid a visit to a building whose contents are very precious.
About 1,000 km from the North Pole, Svalbard is one of the most remote places on earth. For this reason, it is the site of a vault that will safeguard a priceless component of our common heritage – the seeds of our staple crops. Here, seeds from the world’s most vital food crops will be locked away for hundreds or even thousands of years. If something goes wrong in the world, the vault will provide the means to restore farming. We, or our descendants, will not have to retread thousands of years of agriculture from scratch.
Deep in the vault at the end of a long tunnel, are three storage vaults which are lined with insulated panels to help maintain the cold temperatures. Electronic transmitters linked to a satellite system monitor temperature, etc, and pass the information back to the appropriate authorities at Longyearbyen and the Nordic Gene Bank which provide the technical information for managing the seed vaults. The seeds are placed in scaled boxes and stored on shelves in the vaults. The minimal moisture level and low temperature ensure low metabolic activity. The remote location, as well as the rugged structure, provide unparalleled security for the world’s agricultural heritage.
The three vaults are buried deep in the hillside. To reach them, it is necessary to proceed down a long and surprisingly large corridor. At 93.3 meters in length, it connects the 26-meter-long entrance building to the three vaults, each of which extends a further 27 meters into the mountain. Towards the end of this tunnel, after about 80 meters, there are several small rooms on the right-hand side. One is a transformer room to which only the power company officials have access – this houses the equipment needed to transform the incoming electrical current down to 220 volts. A second is an electrical room housing control for the compressor and other equipment. The oilier room is an office that can be heated to provide comfortable working conditions for those who will make an inventory of the samples in and out of the vault.
Anyone seeking access to the seeds has to pass through four locked doors: the heavy steel entrance doors, a second door approximately 90 meters down the tunnel, and finally the two keyed doors separated by an airlock, from which it is possible to proceed directly into the seed vaults. Keys are coded to allow access to different levels of the facility. A work of art will make the vault visible for miles with reflective sheets of steel and mirrors which form an installation acting as a beacon. It reflects polar light in the summer months, while in the winter, a network of 200 fiber-optic cables will give the piece a muted greenish-turquoise and white light. Cary Fowler, the mastermind behind the vault, stands inside the echoing cavern. For him, this is the culmination of nearly 30 years of work. ‘It’s an insurance policy,’ he explains, a very cheap insurance policy when you consider what we’re ensuring – the earth’s biological diversity.’
Seeds are being brought here from all over the world, from seed banks created by governments, universities and private institutions. Soon, there will be seed varieties from at least 100 crops in the Svalbard vault – extending to examples of all of the 1.5 million known crop seed varieties in the world. If any more are unearthed. either in the wild or found in obscure collections, they can be added, too – the vault has room for at least 4.5 million samples. Inside the entrance area it is more than 10°C below freezing, but in the chambers where the seeds are kept, refrigerators push down the temperature even further, to -18°C. At this temperature, which will be kept constant to stop the seeds from germinating or rotting, the wheat seeds will remain viable for an estimated 1.700 years.
Svalbard’s Arctic conditions will keep the seeds cold. In order to maintain the temperature at a constant -10°C to -20°C, the cold Arctic air will be drawn into the vault during the winter, automatically and without human intervention. The surrounding rock will maintain the temperature requirements during the extremely cold season and, during warmer periods, refrigeration equipment will engage. Looking out across the snow-covered mountains of Svalbard, it is hard not to feel respect for the 2,300 or so people who live here, mainly in Longyearbyen, a village a few miles away. There are three months without light in winter.
Svalbard is intended as the seed bank of last resort. Each sample is made up of a few hundred seeds, sealed inside a watertight package which will never be tampered with while it is in the vault. The packages of seeds remain the property of the collections they have come from. Svalbard will disburse samples ‘only if all the other seeds in other collections around the world are gone,’ explains Fowler. If seeds do have to be given out, those who receive them are expected to germinate them and generate new samples, to be returned to the vault.
For questions 103-108, fill in the numbered blank with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS OR A NUMBER according to the information the passage..
The Svalbard Vault is the location where invaluable seeds of our staple crops are safeguarded. A closer inspection of the site suggests that the installation in the ingress consists of (103)____________ and metal panels that maximize natural light. Looking further inside, a (104)____________ tunnel connects the entrance building to the vault. Prior to entering it, seeds are processed in the (105)____________. Meanwhile, the (106)____________ is reduced as it is channeled into a vault. The entry to the seed vault itself is guarded with portals with (107)_____________ sandwiched between them. Here, the seeds are conserved by the cold and a paucity of (108)_____________.
Your answer here:
For questions 109-115
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? Write TRUE (T) if the statement is true, FALSE (F) if the statement is false and NOT GIVEN (NG) if the information is not given in the passage.
SECTION IV. WRITING (6.0 POINTS)
Part 1. Writing summary (1.0 point)
Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary should be between 100 and 120 words long. You MUST NOT copy the original.
Biodegradable Soundproofing
Sustainable building requires rethinking all aspects of construction, including the materials used to buffer noise. Engineers at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur may have found an unlikely replacement for the traditional synthetic acoustic foam: seaweed. The team used agar, a gelatinous substance derived from some species of red seaweed, to create a film that absorbed sounds at a level comparable to the petroleum-derived synthetic materials commonly used for sound dampening. The agar was mixed with glycerol and cellulose to create porous and nonporous films of various thicknesses—agar and glycerol both dampen sound, and cellulose provides structure. Thicker, porous films with 5 percent each of agar and glycerol absorbed sound the best. These biodegradable soundproofing films could be used to replace plastic foams in buildings, recording studios, and airplanes. For the material to become commercially viable, however, the team will need to develop a flame-retardant version.
Bennu’s Surface Lacks Cohesion
Asteroids are often thought of as space rocks, but Bennu’s composition seems more akin to a ball pit. In October 2020, after orbiting the asteroid for two years, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft conducted a touch-and-go (TAG) landing on Bennu, in which an arm reached down and briefly contacted the surface to collect a sample. The mission’s principal investigator, planetary scientist Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, knew from previous years of observation that Bennu is a low-density, “rubble pile” asteroid rather than solid rock, but the lack of cohesion still came as a surprise. Rather than a gentle touchdown, the TAG resulted in a plume of debris as the arm sunk into the asteroid’s spongy surface. In April 2021, OSIRIS-REx conducted a flyby of the TAG site and found that the landing had created a 9-meter-long elliptical crater. Because the probe sank into the asteroid and displaced surface debris, the TAG sample includes deeper material from Bennu’s near subsurface. These buried rocks are darker and redder than those near the surface. Asteroids contain material from the earliest stages of planetary formation, including organic molecules. When OSIRIS-REx delivers the sample to Earth in 2023, researchers will be able to examine its composition and learn more about Bennu and about the origins of the Solar System.
Promising Implant Cools Pain
A microfluidic device might be able to provide targeted relief to postoperative patients and others experiencing intense pain. A team of biomedical engineers led by Jonathan T. Reeder of Northwestern University has developed a tiny implant that encircles a specified peripheral nerve like a cuff. The device acts like a miniature refrigerator, circulating coolant from an external pump into the cuff and numbing the nerve; when the pain treatment is complete, the pump is disconnected and the implant safely dissolves and is absorbed into the body. Existing cooling implants are bulky, imprecise, and need to be surgically removed when treatment is complete. These microfluidic implants are minimally invasive, target specific nerves, and do not need to be extracted. The coolant works through evaporation—similar to how sweat cools the body—and the external pump replenishes the liquid. The device is currently in animal trials, and the results indicate that it is a promising alternative to opioid pain management.
Part 2. Graph description (2.0 points)
The tables below show information and prediction associated with unplanned pregnancy in The Gambia and the birth rate in the world.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write about 150 words
Table 1: unplanned pregnancy in The Gambia in 2008
Table 2: the birth rate in the world (in percent)
Your chart description here:
Part 3. Essay writing (3.0 points)
Write at least 350 words on the following topic:
New forms of money are appearing at an ever-faster rate. Is this a positive development or adding risk to the system? Should new money technology face greater regulation and scrutiny?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Your essay writing here: