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Part 4: For questions 16-25, listen and complete the sentences with a word or short phrase. Write NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS taken from the recording in each blank.
Philosophy, one of Ancient Greece's substantial achievements, was 16_____________of its democracy.
Socrates depicted in the 17______________ as being extremely pessimistic about democracy. According to Socrates, election voting is not a 18_______________, it is a skill. A 19________________ was summoned to hear the case, and the philosopher was found guilty by a narrow margin.
Importantly, Socrates was not 20___________ in the conventional sense.
Ancient Athens had a traumatic 21__________________ and Athens' 22_________________ in Sicily were aided by a charismatic, smooth-talking wealthy man.
Socrates injures you, gives 23_____________ and instructs you not to eat or drink whatever you prefer.
We haven’t completely remembered Socrates' 24__________________ against democracy. We have regarded democracy as an 25_________________ rather than something whose effectiveness is limited by the education system surrounding it.
II. GRAMMAR AND LEXICOLOGY (30 points)
Part 1: Choose the best answer. (20 points)
26. Sandra astounded all the spectators by winning the match ______ down.
A. heads B. hands C. hearts D. feet
27. When his manager went on a business trip, Mark stepped into the ______ and chaired the meeting.
A. hole B. breach C. pool D. crack
28. It is public knowledge that new magazines often use free gifts or other _____ to get people to buy them.
A. gimmicks B. snares C. plots D. scams
29. Peter Oprah is a true sister under the______ as he always supports women’s action to improve their rights.
A. skin B. chin C. mask D. card
30. It is often difficult for a householder to ______ squatters and regain possession of his or her property.
A. eliminate B. withdraw C. evict D. vacate
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31. I'm not a serious investor, but I like to ______ in the stock market.
A. splash B. splatter C. paddle D. dabble
32. The teacher said 'Well done' and patted me on the head. I can't stand people who treat me so ______.
A. pompously B. maternally C. snobbishly D. patronizingly 33. The investigation was instigated ______the Prime Minister.
A. on the part of B. consequence of C. subsequent to D. at the behest of 34. Teachers have the authority to discipline pupils by ______ of their position as teachers. A. view B. virtue C. means D. way
35. The consultant called in by the firm brought a ______ of experience to bear on the problem. A. wealth B. realm C. bank D. hoard
36. The thick fog ______ out any possibility of our plane taking off before morning. A. ruled B. struck C. stamped D. crossed
37. The new curriculum has been designed to ______ students learning by combining theory with hands-on practice.
A. endow B. optimize C. sharpen D. estimate
38. When I was younger, I wanted to be an air pilot but I soon went ____ the idea when I realized I hated flying.
A. out B. off C. up D. with
39. People can make themselves walk on nails or through fire. It’s a question of mind over ______. A. body B. material C. matter D. facts
40. We are a luxury restaurant and if people have a bad experience, we have to _______. A. carry all before them B. carry the can C. carry the ball D. carry the day
Your answers:
Part 2. Complete these sentences, using the suitable form of the given words in brackets. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided. (10 points) 41. These people are _________ and they are not going to say anything on camera that makes them look stupid. (MEDIA)
42. Right now Usain Bolt can still_______ professional athletes although he's considerably aging (PACE)
43. Many scientists still don't believe ________ about their insisting on proving that they had met aliens (TACT)
44. In January 2001, the ____ Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its latest report on climate change. (GOVERN)
45.The New Year 2020's _______ show involves almost every famous face of the country (STAR) Your answers:
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III. READING COMPREHENSION (60 points)
Part 1. Read the passage and fill in each gap with a suitable word.
Public opinion polls show that crime is viewed as one of the most serious problems of many societies. Yet, 46. _______ studies have revealed that the amount of violent crime is 47. _______. Our peculiar awareness and fear is largely brought about by the great attention it is 48. _______ in the mass media and also because of violent crime being a popular theme for television series and films.
Among all crimes, murder makes the 49. _______ and there is a little doubt that homicides still continue to be a 50. _______ question in a number of countries. The various causes of severe crime are being constantly 51. _______ and innumerable reasons for it are being pointed out. Among these are unemployment, drug abuse, inadequate police enforcement, ineffective courts, racial discrimination, television and the general decline in social values.
An acknowledged fact is that it is mainly poverty that 52. ________ crime. Individual incapable of 53. ______ for themselves and their families the rudimentary means of living unavoidably take 54. _____ stealing, burgling or committing other offences. We may try to explain crime on different 55. ______ - cultural, economic, psychological or political, but criminologists are still far from detecting the exact source of violent offences as the direct link between these particular factors isn’t possible to specify.
46. A. postulating B. philosophizing C. examining D. penetrating 47. A. customized B. overestimated C. presupposed D. outspoken 48. A. granted B. awarded C. devoted D. entrusted 49. A. headlines B. titles C. captions D. spotlights 50. A. burdening B. obstructing C. nagging D. contending 51. A. debated B. conversed C. uttered D. articulated 52. A. rears B. nurtures C. breeds D. urges 53. A. insuring B. affording C. securing D. accommodating 54. A. on B. to C. for D. with
55. A. motives B. drives C. grounds D. reasons Your answers:
Part 2: Complete the following passage by filling each blank with ONE suitable word. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
The game of solving difficult puzzles has always filled people with the feeling of a profound excitement. No (56)_______, then, that the fascination of treasure hunting has invariably been associated with the possibility of (57)_______ the most improbable dreams. According to what the psychologists claim, there is a little boy in every treasure hunter. Yet, the chase of hidden valuables has recently become a serious venture with amateur and professional seekers equipped with highly sophisticated (58)_______ like metal detectors, radars, sonars or underwater cameras.
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What (59)_______ the adrenaline level in these treasure - obsessed fanatics are legends, myths, old maps and other variety of clues promising immeasurable fortunes (60)_______ beneath the earth’s surface or drowned in the ancient galleys.
For many reassure hunters the struggle of hint searching is even more stimulating than digging out a treasure (61)_______ composed of golden or silver objects, jeweler and other priceless artifacts. The job is, however, extremely strenuous as even the most puzzling clues must be thoroughly analyzed. Failures and misinterpretations (62)_______ quite frequently, too. Yet, (63)_______ the most unlikely clue or the smallest find is enough to reinforce the hunter's self - confidence and passion.
Indeed, the delight in treasure finding doesn't always depend on acquiring tremendous amounts of valuables. Whatever is detected, (64)_______ it a rusty sundial or a marble statue, brings joy and (65)_______ after a long and exhausting search.
Part 3. Read the passage and choose the best answer A, B, C or D.
Medieval Europe abounded in castles. Germany alone had ten thousand and more, most of them now vanished; all that summer journey in the Rhineland and the south-west now can show are a handful of ruins and a few nineteenth century restorations. Nevertheless, anyone journeying from Spain to the Dvina, from Calabria to Wales, will find castles rearing up again and again to dominate the open landscape. There they will stand, indesolate and uninhabited districts where the only visible forms of life are herdsman and their flocks, with hawks circling the battlements, far from the traffic and comfortably distant even from the nearest small town; these were the strongholds of the European aristocracy.
The weight of aristocratic dominance was felt in Europe until well after the French Revolution; political and social structure, the church, the general tenor of thought and feeling were all influenced by it. Over the centuries, consciously or unconsciously, the other classes of this older European society- the clergy, the bourgeoisie, and ‘ the common people’- adopted many of the outward characteristics of the aristocracy, who became their model, their standard, their ideal. Aristocratic values and ambition were adopted alongside aristocratic manners and fashions of dress. Yet Aristocracy was the object of much contentious criticism and complaint; from the thirteenth century onwards their military value and their political importance were both called into question. Nevertheless, their opponents continued to be their principal imitators. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the reforming Papacy and its clerical supporters, although opposed the excessively democratic control of the church ( as is shown by the Investiture contest) nevertheless, themselves first adopted and then strengthened the forms of this control. Noblemen who became bishops or who founded new Orders helped to implant aristocratic principles and forms of government deep within the structure and spiritual life of the Church. Again, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the urban bourgeoisie, made prosperous and even rich by trade and industry, were rising to political power as the servants and legal
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These ‘ Patricians’ were critical of the Aristocracy and hostile towards it. Yet they also imitated the Aristocracy and tried to gain admittance to the closed circle and to achieve equality of status. Even the unarmed peasantry, who usually had to suffer more from the unrelieved weight of aristocratic dominance, long remained tenaciously loyal to their lords, held to their allegiance by that combination of love and fear, amor et timor, which was so characteristic of the medieval relationship between lord and servant, between God and man.
The castle and strongholds of the aristocracy remind us of the reality of their power and superiority. Through the long warring centuries when men went defenseless and insecure, the’ house’, the lord’s fortified dwelling, promised protection, security and peace to all whom it sheltered. From the ninth to the eleventh centuries, it not later, Europe was in many ways all to open. Attack came from the sea, in the Mediterranean from Saracens and Vikings, the latter usually in their swift, dragon- power, easily maneuvered longboats, manned by some sixteen pairs of oarsmen and with a full complement of perhaps sixty men. There were periods when the British Isles and the French coasts were being raided every year by Vikings and in the heart of the continent marauding Magyar and armies met invading bands of Saracens. The name of Pontresina, near ST. Moritz in Switzerland, is a memento of the stormy tenth century. It means pons Saracenorum, the ‘ fortified Saracen bridge’, the place where plundering expeditions halted on their way up from the Mediterranean.
It was recognized in theory that the Church and the monarchy were the principal powers and that they were bound by the nature of their office to ensure peace and security and to do justice; but at this period they were too weak, too torn by internal conflicts to fulfill their obligations. Thus, more and more power passed into the hands of warriors invested by the monarchy and the Church with lands and rights of jurisdiction, who in return undertook to support their overlords and to protect the unarmed peasantry.
Their first concern, however, was self- protection. It is almost impossible for us to realize how primitive the great majority of these early medieval ‘ castles’ really were. Until about 1150 the fortified houses of the Anglo-Norman nobility were simple dwellings surrounded by a mound of earth and a wooden stockade. These were the motte and bailey castles; the motte was the mound and its stockade, the bailey an open court lying below and also stockaded. Both were protected, where possible, by yet another ditch filled with water, the moat. In the middle of the motte there was a wooden tower, the keep or donjon, which only became a genuine stronghold at the later date and in places where stone was readily available. The stone castles of the French and German nobility usually had only a single communal room in which all activities took place.
In such straitened surroundings, where warmth, light and comfort were lacking, there was no way of creating an air of privacy. It is easy enough to understand why the life of the landed nobility was often so unrestrained, so filled with harshness, cruelty and brutality, even in later, more ‘ chivalrous ‘ periods. The barons’ daily life was bare and uneventful, punctuated by war, hunting ( a rehearsal for war), and feasting. Boys were trained to fight from the age of seven or eight, and their education in arms continued until they were twenty-one, although in some cases they started to fight as early as fifteen. The peasants of the surrounding countryside, bound to their lords by a great variety of ties, produced the sparse fare which was all that the underdeveloped 7 | P a g e
agriculture of the early medieval period could sustain. Hunting was a constant necessity, to make up for the lack of butcher’s meat, and in England and Germany in the eleventh and twelfth centuries even the Kings had to progress from one crown estate to another, from one bishop’s palace to the next, to maintain themselves and retinue.
Questions:
66. Class conflict in the Middle Ages was kept in check by______.
A. The fact that most people belonged the same class
B. Tyrannical suppressions of rebellions by powerful monarchs
C. The religious teachings of the church
D. The fact that all other classes admired and attempted to emulate the aristocracy 67. The urban bourgeoisie was hostile to the aristocracy because_______.
A. The bourgeoisie was prevented by the aristocracy from seeking an alliance with the kings. B. Aristocrats often confiscated the wealth of the bourgeoisie.
C. the bourgeoisie saw the aristocracy as their rivals
D. the aristocrats often deliberately antagonized the bourgeoisie
68. Castles were originally built _______.
A. As status symbols
B. As strongholds against invaders
C. As simple places to live in.
D. As luxurious chateaux.
69. One of the groups that invaded Central Europe during the Middle Ages from the ninth century on was the______ .
A. Magyars B. Franks C. Angles D. Celts 70. The aristocracy was originally_________
A. The great landowners
B. Members of the elegy
C. The king’s warriors
D. Merchants who became wealthy
71. The reforming Popes eventually produced an aristocratic Church because______. A. They depended on the aristocracy for money
B. They themselves were more interested in money than in religion.
C. They were defeated by the aristocrats.
D. Many aristocrats entered the structure of the Church and impressed their values on it. 72. Hunting served the dual purpose of ______.
A. Preparing for war and engaging in sport
B. Preparing for war and getting meat
C. Learning how to ride and shoot
D. Testing horses and men
73. The phrase “ amor et timor” is used to describe the _______.
A. Rivalry between bourgeoisie and aristocracy
B. Church’s view of man and his relationship to God
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C. Peasnant’s loyalty to the aristocracy
D. Adaptation of aristocratic manners and dress
74. Protection of the peasantry was implemented by the _______.
A. King ‘s warriors
B. Magyar mercenaries
C. Replacement of wood towers by stone donjons
D. Princes of the Church
75. The effectiveness of the Church and King was diminished by________. A. Ambition of the military
B. Conflicts and weaknesses within the Church and the royal house.
C. Peasant dissatisfaction
D. The inherent flaws of feudalism.
Your answers:
Part 3. Read the passage and do the tasks that follow.
Questions 76 – 81. The reading passage has six sections, A - F. Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.
List of Headings
i. Tough words that have to be said
ii. Passion leads to great coffee
iii. Getting the message out
iv. Preparing young people for employment
v. Too much emotion
vi. A harder time ahead
vii. Back to school
viii. Results are not enough
ix. Preparing for change
76. Section A
77. Section B
78. Section C
79. Section D
80. Section E
81. Section F
Should we recalibrate what we think of as success?
'High Mistress' Clarissa Farr believes that a rounded education and realistic expectations are as important as top exam grades for her pupils at St Paul's.
'There's far too much passion everywhere these days; we're drowning in it,' observes Clarissa Farr, the head of the elite private St Paul's School for Girls in west London, with a note of dry humour. 9 | P a g e
She is referring, however, not to the age-old problem of broiling teenage hormones, but the modern phenomenon of shamefully over-excitable adults.
A. 'We were interviewing various companies about designing a new prospectus, and they were all declaring how passionate they were,' she elucidates. Cafes put signs up announcing their passion for serving coffee or making sandwiches - and it's a reflection of how overhyped the world has become. Our society has been in thrall to the max; maximum working, maximum earning, maximum reaction, and the extreme language is a symptom of that. 'An important part of my role is to teach intelligent restraint, to turn the temperature down and encourage my girls to take a step back and engage in thought rather than simply adding their voices to the confusion.'
B. Of late, Miss Farr has been sharing her intelligent thoughts with us all. She has written to newspapers to give her opinions on the character-building importance of extra-curricular challenges. She has made headlines with the revelation that she was staging parenting classes at her school, which counts Rachel Weisz, the actress; Alexandra Shulman, the editor-in-chief of Vogue; Jennifer Saunders, the comedian; Stephanie Flanders, the BBC economics editor; and Carol Thatcher, the journalist among its alumnae - the Old Paulinas.
C. Right now, Miss Farr, officially known-as the High Mistress, is calmly saying the unsayable; namely that even young people who attend top-flight places of learning such as hers will struggle to find employment. 'We need to prepare young people for the world as it is now, not as we would wish it to be,' she says crisply. 'This generation I'm looking at now isn't going to be chasing super salaries. A lot are going to struggle to get employment - at present, the best-educated graduates are coming out of university without jobs'. Cue gasps of anguish from pushy parents everywhere, but Miss Farr, 54, tall and impeccably dressed, cuts an imposing figure who brooks no argument. She commands respect within the school walls and far beyond; when she speaks, educationalists listen. Her school's liberal ethos - embodied in the absence of uniform - is balanced by its mission to 'educate the prodigiously gifted.' Miss Farr is unabashed by this elitist reputation, but believes that a rounded education instills more than a rigorous work ethic.
D. Today's teenagers will need more than just a series of top exam grades if they are to shine. Resourcefulness, confidence and a flexible mindset will be just as - perhaps even more - important.
'We need to recalibrate what we think of as success. What will success look like in the future? Most probably not a job for life, and that process of altering perspective begins at school.' Recalibration doesn't come cheap; after shelling out fees of £18,000 a year, parents could be forgiven for assuming that their daughters will be able to pick and choose their own career paths. Given the current pressure on leading universities to admit more students from the state sector, Old Paulinas might even find the odds are, for the first time in the school's 108-year history, stacked against them. But Miss Farr refuses to complain at what is perceived by other independent head teachers as a blatant unfairness.
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E. 'When our girls go to interview for university places, they're given a tough time, and quite rightly so, she says. 'They've had access to excellent teaching and have had the opportunity to hear extraordinary speakers from a whole range of professions. This is a high-octane intellectual environment, and they should have to work harder to prove themselves.' Miss Farr, who is married to John Goodbody, the sports journalist, has two children: a 16-year-old daughter and a 14-year old son, both of whom are at single sex independent schools. As a parent, she can empathize with other parents' concerns. 'A school like this can have a reputation for being detached and stand offish,’ she says. 'But we see ourselves as working alongside parents in bringing up their girls. What have been billed in the press as "parenting classes" are more a sort of seminar, a forum where parents can meet and share experiences?'
F. Miss Farr has bluntly pointed out to high-flying professional parents who work long hours and often travel abroad that they are ‘deceiving themselves if they think they can bring up children by iPhone’. It's not necessarily the message today's hard-pressed parents want to hear, but it is, avers Miss Farr, the message they need to hear. Subjects under discussion thus far have included the Internet, discipline and, most recently, how to support girls through the stressful exam period. Needless to say, the high-achieving girls of St Paul's won't turn a hair at the plan by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, to let universities preside over the setting of significantly tougher A levels. Some state schools, however, will find it a tough readjustment. But Miss Farr - disingenuously, perhaps - claims that there is no gulf between the two sectors. 'I don't see a divide; the independent sector is another component within a mosaic of provision that includes faith schools, academies and the maintained sector, she says. 'In this school, we have a very particular purpose: to look after the needs of very academically gifted girls. That's our contribution, and through our bursary and outreach work, we are trying to be as accessible as we can to any girls who would benefit. ' But education isn't just about the students; effective learning begins with good teaching, but the pressures of the job mean that as in the state sector,’ the independent sector is facing something of a leadership crisis. 'There are not enough people wanting to go into the top job; nobody wants to be the one held responsible,' says Miss Farr. 'A generation of deputy heads needs to be encouraged to stand up and become the point beyond which the buck can't be passed.' Much of the mistrust felt by those in school management stems from the way education is invariably treated as a political football. 'I feel very strongly that education needs to stand outside political motivations; one of the problems we face is that as every new government comes to power, we are forced to swing between policies.'
'We need a slow-burn, evolutionary strategy that will serve us for the long haul. At the moment, there's a lot of integrated thinking, which is encouraging, as it fosters a bespoke rather than a one size-fits-all approach to providing education.' At St Paul's School for Girls, where learning is tailored to the proverbial crème de la crème, Miss Farr is in her element and keen to proselytize to those considering education as a career.
'It's up to schools to rebalance people's thinking and reset the co-ordinates for a different kind of future. Shaping young people's values is an important, exciting role.'
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(adapted from www.telegraph.co.uk)
Questions 82-85. Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading 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
82. Miss Farr's ideas are only relevant for parents and pupils of St Paul's School. 83. Miss Farr has an unwelcome message about the future of her pupils.
84. Miss Farr abandoned school uniform as part of the school's philosophy. 85. Miss Farr believes business success can lead to poor parenting decisions.
Questions 86-88. Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
86. St Paul's School is ________
A. a school with special classes for emotional teenagers.
B. one of the best state schools in London.
C. facing financial problems which will require it to modify its policies.
D. under the direction of a woman with strong views.
87. The writer predicts that the reaction to Miss Farr's views on future employment prospects will be _______
A. heard by educationalists. B. shocking to some parents. C. useful to the young people at St Paul's. D. seen by society as elitist. 88. There is a leadership crisis ________
A. because there are not enough deputy heads in schools.
B. as a result of a series of recent political changes.
C. in schools in both the independent sector and the state sector.
D. in management teams as they lack trust in government.
Your answers:
Part 4. You are going to read an extract from a newspaper article. Five paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (89-95). There are extra paragraphs which you do not need to use.
Why do catchy tunes stay on our minds?
Claire Wilson reveals why the brain finds it hard to forget irritating, popular songs. 12 | P a g e
Songs that go round and round in your head for days or even weeks on end, have commonly become known as “earworms.” For no obvious reason, a tune just stays on your mind, and you cannot help singing or humming it whether it’s a song you like or not. What is interesting about this experience is that it clearly illustrates a part of our mind that is not under our control.
Oliver Sacks, a neurologist and author of the book Musicophilia, claims that earworms are an obvious sign of “the overwhelming and at times, helpless, sensitivity of our brains to music.” Music has something in common with earworms; they are both typified by reiteration, and this may be why earworms are so difficult to oust from our mind.
Along with the repetition, music is unique compared to many of the other things we frequently encounter in our daily lives, because it is so similar every time we hear it. Roads are tedious to our eyes, and often all look the same, but each time you see the same road, you’ll see it from a different angle, aspect or in a different light.
A further thing about earworms is that time and again they seem to have something appealing or untypical about them. Usually they are simple and repetitive fragments of music, but those songs that eventually become earworms have just a small trace of something that makes them “catchy.”
Earworms also seem to be a part of long-term memory and not just a temporary after image of sound. For example, someone with an especially lasting earworm can activate it just by hearing someone mention the name. They don’t actually have to hear the music before it’s back again going through their head.
One part of the slave system is the “mind’s eye,” which retains visual information, and another is the “inner ear,” which we, for instance, employ to remember someone’s address or phone number. It is the latter which appears to get weighed down with earworms.
Freud claimed that our minds are not one unity, and today’s cognitive neuroscience agrees, though it varies on some of the specifics. The point is that our awareness of ourselves is far from being the only thing teeming in our minds. The mind is a place of which we do not have total control not complete knowledge.
One psychologist has proposed singing other songs that are quite similar to your earworm, using the theory that an earworm continues to exist in your mind because of its idiosyncrasy and your inner ear. By wiping out the individuality of the memory that is the earworm, either it will disappear or be replaced by yet another earworm.
A.Earworms are musical memories that get set in a loop and play a specific verse or line, over and over again and never get to the end of the song. A few people have said that if they sing the
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earworm to the very end, it can help stop it playing in your head. However, others have reported this is absolutely no help at all, and in fact might make it worse by more of the song rather than less being repeated mentally.
B. Maybe that is the reason why they haunt our memory, and are so difficult to forget. If they were the normal run of the mill song, they would be drummed out by all the other tunes that sound so similar to each other and we’d have no grounds to mark them out as different.
C. Yet this is not the complete story. Aptly named “slave systems” have been pinpointed in our short-term memory by human memory researchers; sections of the mind that ensnare sights and sounds, keeping them to the forefront of our minds while we focus exclusively on them for a short time.
D.There is of course the infamous “don’t think of a white bear” predicament. As it implies, the ide
a is not to think about a white bear, but just try it for yourself. You face the irony of attempting to block your mind of all thoughts of a white bear whilst at the same time confirming you are not thinking of a white bear – you are conjuring up an image of precisely the thing you are trying not to think of. So the only solution is to do something else to circumvent both thinking of the white bear and not thinking of the white bear. Something like the inner ear, really.
E. This inner ear would appear to have a preference for maintaining a couple of bars of music or a few short phrases from a song on our mind, rather than going through our plans for the day or making a list of things to remember. In other words, a part of the body that we do not usually have to even think about and which should do what we want, has turned against us, turning our minds into a jukebox playing only one record that we never requested.
F. An earworm infects our inner ear, that essential component of our cognitive apparatus that helps us remember and rehearse sounds. This is a part of ourselves over which we have no control, so just telling it to “be quiet” is unlikely to work, and in fact could have the opposite effect and worsen the situation. It is deemed a good idea by many scientists to use the inner ear for another activity – something that will make the mind off the ear worm.
G.They fail to ask for permission to arrive and decline to depart when we tell them to. Earworms are leeches, residing in a section of our mind that practices sounds. These sounds appear to be quite simple and rhythmic, but not everyone is suffering from the same song at the same time.
H.Conversely, play a tune on your MP$ player and it sounds the same every single time. Memorizing information is strongly influenced by repetition, therefore, perhaps the familiarity of a piece of music etches deep-rooted channels in our mind, allowing earworms to flourish.
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Part 5. You are going to read an article that contains information about underground railway systems. For questions 96 – 105, choose from the cities (A – D).
The cities may be chosen more than once.
A. Paris
Passengers carried per day: 4.5m
Cost of ticket: 1.70 euros flat fare
Length: 214 kilometers
Lines: 14
Stations: 300
In Paris, there are pleasures for those who use the Metro – many of them aesthetic. The gracefully curvaceous Art Nouveau dragon-fly entrances are just the most prominent on a Metro system which celebrated its centenary by spending millions of euros on refurbishing its stations and making them works of art. On my way home, I pass Bonne Nouvelle station in the heart of Paris’s cinema district. There, during the cinema festival this summer, special lighting effects dapple the platforms and films are projected onto the advertising hoardings. More than anything the metro is efficient. ‘When I worked on line 4,’ says a retired driver, ‘we had exactly 30 minutes and 15 seconds to complete the journey. If it took any longer, they docked our pay.’ But there are drawbacks. Many Metro stations have too many stairs, and changing lines at big interchanges can be tiresome
B. Moscow
Passengers carried per day: 6.6m
Cost of ticket: 28 rubles (0.70 euros)
Length: 301 kilometers
Lines: 12
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Stations: 182
The first tunneling for the Moscow Metropolitan started in 1932. Three years later, the trains started running. They haven’t stopped since – every 90 seconds or two minutes during rush hour, every five minutes the rest of the time, from 6 a.m. till 1 a.m. There may be a crush but there is seldom a wait. The trains take you through a parade of marbled, stuccoed, spacious, spotless stations. For tourists it’s a major draw: from Russian art deco to neoclassical, the Metro stations are not to be missed. In short, the Metro was a central, perhaps the central, element in the building frenzy of the 1930s that changed the face of Moscow forever.
C. Tokyo
Passengers carried per day: 8.7m
Cost of ticket: 160 – 300 yen (1.40 – 2.50 euros)
Length: 328 kilometres
Lines: 14
Stations: 282
Trains do not just arrive on time in Tokyo, they stop right on the platform mark so that passengers can line up knowing exactly where the doors will open. Train driving is a prestigious job for life for which the applicants must pass a rigorous screening of health checks, interviews and written exams before they can don the usually meticulously turned out uniform, cap and white gloves. However, overcrowding means it is far from a commuter paradise. At peak morning hours, some stations employ part-time platform staff to cram in passengers. Carriages can be filled to 183% of capacity. The main reason for such cramped conditions is that the Tokyo subway system has only 24 kilometres of track for every 1 million people, compared to 58 on the London Underground. New lines are under construction, but at a cost of 575,000 euros per metre of rail, progress has been slow.
D. Mexico City
Passengers carried per day: 5m
Cost of ticket: 3 pesos (0.15 euros) flat fare
Length: 451 kilometres
Lines: 11
Stations: 175
Fast, relatively safe, and very cheap, Mexico City’s underground is an oasis of order and efficiency under the chaos above. The Mexican capital’s underground system is the biggest in the continent and one of the most subsidized networks in the world. Built in the 1960s, it boasts rubber-tyred carriages and connecting walkways that recall the Paris Metro. An army of vendors wind their way through the cars selling everything from briefcases to potato peelers. The first trains leave the terminuses at 5 a.m. and the last after midnight as the masses move from the outskirts of the 20 million-strong megacity. Mexico City’s Metro also attracts a sizeable contingent of passengers who are unwilling to spend hours in choking traffic jams.
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Without the Metro, the city would grind to a halt, but expansion is desperately needed to relieve the crowding. At peak times, two carriages on each train may be reserved for women and children only. There is a master plan to build new lines and extend existing ones, but financial constraints complicated by the fact that the system runs through different jurisdictions mean progress is slow.
IV. WRITING (60 points)
Part 1. Summary (10 points)
Read the following text and use your own words to summarize it in about 120 words. You must not copy the original words.
The child who is too aggressive is usually revealing two difficulties. Firstly, far from being too confident, he is actually not confident enough of himself. Secondly, he has not learnt, or is afraid to trust, the acceptable ways of getting what he wants and defending his rights.
Why the child lacks confidence may not be apparent. In a young child, a lack of confidence can be readily understood. He has not yet had enough experience to know what he can do. An older child may be bullying and aggressive because he is too strictly held down at home, or equally because he is too laxly handled and has not been helped to self-control. Too much and too little parental authority often have similar troubling effects on children of different temperaments.
The same may be said of the second difficulty the child reveals by his aggressive behavior. A young child does not yet know that there are better ways than fighting. An older child may not have been given much guidance, or through circumstances he may not have had much experience in getting along with other children. When parents or other adults have not been on hand to teach and show children by their example, or have been too protective of their children in the pre-school years, it may take both time and experience for the children to learn to get along with others, once they are in school and on their own.
The child who is too aggressive needs his confidence build up in good and wholesome ways. His boldness, his energy, his desire to lead and manage others can be directed into useful channels. At home and in school, the aggressive child can be given more responsibility and more praise for his real achievements.
Part 2. Chart description (20 points)
The pie graphs show greenhouse gas emissions worldwide in 2002 and the forecast for 2030. The column chart shows carbon dioxide emissions around the world.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words. Part 3. Essay (30 points)
Some people say the government should not put money into building theatres and sports stadiums; they should spend more money on medical care and education.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 350 words.
