Reading 31

READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Question 1-13,which are based on Reading Passage 1 on page 2
and 3.
The Blockbuster Phenomenon: a new museum trend
Museums in Australia, like other pleasure-giving public organizations, are adapting their activities so
that they more closely reflect the marketplace
A
since the 1980s, the term "blockbuster' has become the fashionable word for
spectacular, high-profile museum exhibitions that have the ability to attract large crowds. A blockbuster is
a "large-scale loan exhibition that people who normally don't go to museums will stand in line for hours
to see" Q1 (Elsen 1984). Once the museum that created the exhibition has shown it to their local market,
it can be offered to other organizations for a fee. This means that you can boost your own door takings
and make money from boosting someone else's door takings.
B
While partaking of the excitement of the blockbuster, visitors thus lured are likely to
stay longer at the museum. Betty Churcher, when Director of the Australian National
Gallery, Summed up the new blockbuster creed as follows: The bonus of the blockbuster exhibitions is
that people come to see the blockbuster and they stay to lock at the permanent collection, so you are
getting broader exposure for your collection.
C
Museums across the UK, USA, Canada and Australia currently operate under
system of plural funding: revenue raised through contributions by federal, state and/or
local governments, combined with revenue raised through admission charges and other activities Q4,
Maintaining and increasing visitor levels is this paramount and involves not only creating or hiring
blockbuster exhibitions, but providing regular exhibition changes and innovations. In addition, the
visiting public have become known as customers rather than visitors Q5, and the skills that are valued in
museums to keep the new customers coming through the door have changed. Curators are now
administrators and being a museum director no longer requires an Arts degree-but public relations skills
are essential if the museum is going to compete Q6 with other museums to stage traveling exhibition
which draw compete with other museums to stage traveling exhibition which draw huge crowds.
D The convergence of museums, they heritage industry, tourism, profit-making and
pleasure-giving has resulted in the new "museology". Q7 This has given rise to much debate about
whether it is appropriate to see museums primarily as tourist attractions Q8. In literature from both UK
and USA, the words that are starting to appear in some descriptions of blockbusters are "less scholarly",
"non-elitist" and "popularist" Q3, while others extol the virtues encouraging scholars to co-operate on
projects, and to provide exhibitions that cater for a broad selection of community rather than an elite
sector, whatever commentators may think, manager of museums worldwide are looking for artful ways to
blend culture and commerce, and blockbuster exhibitions are at the top of the list.
E
But do blockbusters held in public institutions really create a surplus to fund other activities? If the
bottom line is profit, then according to the records of many major
museums blockbusters do make money. For museums in some countries, it may be the
money that they require to replace parts of their collections or to fix buildings that are in need of
attention. Q9 For some museums in Australia, it may be the opportunity to illustrate that they are
attempting to pay their way by recovering part of their operating costs. Also, creating or hiring a
blockbuster has many positive spin-offs: blockbusters mean crowds, and crowds are good for the local
economy, provide increased trade for shops, hotels, restaurants, the transport industry and retailers. The
arrangement that the arts provide sustained economic benefits has been well illustrated in impact studies
in the USA and UK.
F
However, blockbusters require large capital expenditure, and draw on resources
across all branches of an organization, and the costs don't end there. There is a Human Resource
Management cost in addition to a measurable "real" dollar cost. Receiving a touring exhibition draws
resources from across functional management structures in project management style. Everyone, from
general labourers to building services, front of house, technical, promotional, educational and
administrative staff, is required to perform additional tasks. Furthermore, as an increasing number of
institutions try their hand at increasing visitor numbers and memberships(and therefore revenue) by
staging blockbuster exhibitions, it may be less likely that blockbusters will continue to provide a surplus
to subsidize other activities due to the competitive nature of the market.
G
It has been illustrated in both the UK and USA that the blockbuster ideology has
resulted in the false expectation that the momentum required to stage blockbusters can be maintained
continually. Creating, mounting or hiring blockbusters is exhausting, with the real costs throughout an
institution difficult to calculate. Secondly, as some analysts have argued, the "shop keeping " mentality
and cost benefit analysis and a pure concentration on the bottom line, can squeeze substance out of an
exhibition. Taking out substance can be a recipe for blockbuster failure and therefore financial failure.
H
Perhaps the best pathway to take is one that balances both blockbusters and regular exhibitions. However,
this easy middle ground may only work if you have enough space, and have alternate sources of funding
to continue to support the regular, less exciting fare. Perhaps the advice should be to make sure that you
find out what your local community, wants from you and make sure that your regular activities and
exhibitions are more ending
Questions 1 - 4
Reading Passage t has eight paragraphs. A-H
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-H, in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once
1 the reason why museum directors need to constantly alter and update their exhibit C
2 mention of the length of time people will queue up to see a blockbuster A
3 terms that people have used when referring to blockbusters D
4 the various ways that institutions like museums get financial support C
Questions 5-8
Complete the sentences below
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
While your answers in boxes 5-8 an your answer sheet
5 These days. museum visitors tend to be referred to as.. customers...
6 Museum curators now need ..public relations skills..................... rather than academic qualifications
7 The linking of a range of public institutions that entertain the public is
known.....museology.................
8 There is discussion about whether museums can be regarded in the same way as
other.........tourist attractions.
Questions 9 and 10
Choose TWO letters, A-E
Write the correct letters in boxes 9 and 10 on your answer sheet.
Which Two of the following are mentioned by the writer as advantages of blockbusters?
A Some of the money they raise can be used for structural repairs.
B They can provide funds to help support amateur artists.
C Local services benefit from the extra business they bring about.
D They encourage overseas workers into the local area.
E They raise employee performance levels.

Question 11-13
Chooses THREE letters, A-G
Write the correct letters in boxes 1-13 on you answer sheet.
Which THREE of the following are mentioned by the writer as disadvantages of
blockbusters?
A they do not suit museum management styles
B Specialist business advice has to be paid for
C They involve an increased workload for personnel
D They do not increase overall annual visitor numbers
E They are very tiring to put on
F What is popular in one country may not be popular in another
G The content can be weakened through financial pressure.

READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-25, which are based on Reading
Passage 2 on page 7 and 8
Question 14-20
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs A-G
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, in boxes 14-20 on you answer sheet.
List of Headings
I Fluctuations in bittern numbers over time
II Research findings on habitat needs of adult bitterns
III Predators in the natural world
IV The importance in the natural world
V Initial habitat investigation and decisions
VI The need for co-operation to ensure nature
preservation
VII Impressive results of initial intervention
VIII determining how many bitterns there are
IX Education as the key to preserving wildlife

14 Paragraph A I
15 Paragraph B VIII
16 Paragraph C V
17 Paragraph D II
18 Paragraph E VII
19 Paragraph F IV
20 Paragraph G VI

Saving the Bittern

A
The bittern, A British waterbird, does not have a good record as far as survival is
concerned. By 1886, habitat destruction and other pressures had pushed it close to
extinction. Fortunately, it recovered a few decades later, and in 1950 the numbers of nature male bitterns
rose to a peak of about 70 Q21. By the 1980s, however, it was clear that the bird was in trouble again.
The bittern needs extensive wet reedbeds to survive, and long periods of drainage, pollution and lack of
management had destroyed most of its habitat. By 1997, it again faced imminent extinction. To prevent
this, the British government set up a plan for the bittern, aiming to establish a population of 50 males by
2010. However, this target was reached six years early, a rate of recovery faster than anyone had dared
hope for. We at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) now claim the bittern as one of
Britain's greatest wildlife success stories,since figures reveal that the number of these rare birds has
increased fivefold in just seven years.
B
Bitterns have feathers that help them to conceal themselves and a shy nature Q22 ; they
usually remain hidden within the cover of reedbed vegetation. Our first challenge was to develop standard
methods to monitor their numbers. The booming call of the male bittern is its most distinctive of feature
during the breeding season, and we developed a method to count them using the sound patterns unique to
each individual. This not only allowed us to be much more certain of the number of booming males in the
UK, but also enabled us to estimate local survival of males from one year to the next.
C
Our first direct understanding of what breeding bitterns require in their ideal habitat
came from comparisons of reedbed sits that had lost their male birds with those that
retained them. This research showed that bitterns had been retained in reedbeds where the natural process
of drying out had been slowed through management. Based on this work, broad recommendations on how
to manage and rehabilitate rehabilitate reedbeds for bitterns were made, and funding was provided
through a European Union (EU) wildlife fund to manage 13 sites within the core breeding range.
D
To refine these recommendations and provide fine-scale, quantitative habitat
prescriptions on the bitterns' preferred feeding habitat, we started radio-tracking male
bitterns on the RSPB's Minsmere and Leighton Moss reserves. This showed clear
preferences for feeding in the wetter reedbed areas, particularly within reedbed next to
larger open pools. The average home range sizes of the male bitterns we followed (about 20 hectares)
provided a good indication of the area of reedbed necessary when managing or creating habitat indication
of the area of reedbed necessary when managing or creating habitat for this species. Female bitterns
undertake all the incubation and care of the young, so it was important to understand their requirements as
well. Over the course of your research, we located 87 bittern nests and found that female bitterns
preferred to nest in areas of continuous vegetation, well into the reedbed, but where was still present
during the driest part of the breeding season.
E
The success of the habitat prescriptions developed from this research has been
spectacular. For instance, at minsmere, male bittern numbers gradually increased from one to ten
following reedbed lowering, a management technique designed to halt the drying out process. After a low
point of 11 mature males in 1997, bittern numbers in Britain responded to all the habitat management
work and started to increase for the first time since 1950.
F
The final phase of research involved understanding the diet, survival and dispersal of
bittern chicks. To do this we fitted small radio tags to young bittern chicks in the nest, to determine their
fate through to fledging, when they begin to fly,and beyond. Many chicks did not survive to this stage,
and starvation was found to be the most likely reason for their demise Q23. The fish prey fed to chicks
was mainly those species penetrating into the reed edge. So, an important element of recent studies has
been development of recommendations on habitat and water conditions to promote native fish Q24
populations. Once independent, radio-tagged young bitterns were found to seek out new sites during their
first winter, a proportion of these would remain on new sites to breed if the conditions were suitable. A
second EU-funded project aims to provide these suitable sites in new areas. A network of 19 sites
developed through this partnership project will secure a more sustainable UK bittern population with
successful breeding outside of the core area, less vulnerable to chance events and sea level rise.
G
By 2004, the number of booming male bitterns in the UK had increased to 55. Almost
all of the increase occurred on those sites undertaking management based on advice
derived from our research. What rescuing the bittern, the work has helped a range of other spectacular
wetland species such as otters Q25 . Although science has been at the core of the bittern story, success has
only been achieved through the trust, hard work and dedication of all the managers, owners and wardens
of sites that have implemented, in some cases very drastic, management to secure the future of this
wetland species in the UK.
Question 21-25
Choose ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 21-25 on your answer sheet.
21 When was the bittern population largest? 1950
22 What word is used in the passage to describe the bittern's character? shy
23 What is probably the main cause of death of bittern chicks? starvation
24 What food supply do bittern chicks depend on ? fish
25 What other creature mentioned in the passage have also benefited from
improvement made to the bittern's habitat? otters
Question 26
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D
Write the correct letter in box on your answer sheet.
26 What is the main theme of Reading Passage 2?
A how one species may be helped at the expense of another
B disagreement among environmentalists on methods to protect species from extinction
C fighting the destruction of wetland reedbeds
D how research and good management can save an endangered species
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on reading
passage 3 on page 10 and 11.
 The Placebo Effect
With the right encouragement, your mind can convince the body to heal itself.
What is the mysterious force that can do this?
A. Want to devise a new form of alternative medical treatment? No problem. Here's
the recipe. As a practitioner, be warm, sympathetic, reassuring and enthusiastic. Your
treatment should involve physical contact, and each session with your patients should take at least half an
hour. Encourage your patients to take an active part in their treatment and understand how their disorders
relate to the rest of their lives Q27. Tell them that their own bodies possess the true power to heal. Get
them to pay you well. Describe your treatment in familiar words Q28, but embroidered with a hint of
mysticism: energy fields, energy flows, energy blocks, meridians, forces, auras, rhythms and the like.
Refer to the knowledge of an early age: wisdom carelessly swept aside by the rise of blind mechanistric
science. Oh, come off it, you're saying. Something like that couldn't possibly work, could it ?
B. Well yes, it could-and often well enough to earn you a living. And a very good living
if you are sufficiently convincing or, better still, really believe in you therapy. Q29 Many illness get better
on their own, Q30 so if you are lucky and administer your treatment at just the right time you'll get the
credit. But that's only part of it. Some of the improvement really would be down to you. Not necessarily
because you'd recommended ginseng rather than chamomile tea o used this crystal as opposed to that
pressure point. Nothing so specific. Your healing power would be the outcome of a paradoxical force that
conventional medicine recognizes but remains oddly ambivalent about Q31: the placebo effect.
C. Placebos are treatments that have no direct effect on the body, yet still work
because the patient has faith in their power to heal. Most often the term refers to a dummy pill, but it
applies just as much to any device or procedure, from a sticking plaster to a crystal. The existence of the
placebo effect implies that even a complete fraud could make a difference to someone's health, which is
why some practitioners of alternative medicine are sensitive about any mention of the subject. In fact, the
placebo is a powerful part of all medical care, orthodox or otherwise, though its role is often neglected
and misunderstood.
D. One of the great strengths of CAM may be its practitioners’ skill in deploying the placebo effect to
accomplish real healing. “Complementary practitioners are miles better at producing non-specific effects
and good therapeutic relationships,” says Edzard Ernst, professor of CAM at Exeter University. The
question is whether CAM could be integrated into conventional medicines, as some would like, without
losing much of this power.
E. At one level, it should come as no surprise that our state of mind can influence our
physiology: anger opens the superficial blood vessels of the face; sadness pumps the tear glands. But
exactly how placebos work their medical magic is still largely unknown Q35. Most of the scant research
to date has focused on the control of pain, because it's one of the commonest complaints and lend itself to
experimental study. Here, attention has turned to the endorphins, natural substances produced in the brain
that are known to help control pain.
F. But exactly how placebos work their medical magic is still largely unknown. Most of the scant research
to date has focused on the control of pain because it’s one of the commonest complaints and lends itself to
experimental study. Here, attention has turned to the endorphins, natural counterparts of morphine that are
known to help control pain. “Any of the neurochemicals involved in transmitting pain impulses or
modulating them might also be involved in generating the placebo response,” says Don Price, an oral
surgeon at the University of Florida who studies the placebo effect in dental pain.
G. “But endorphins are still out in front.” That case has been strengthened by the recent work of Fabrizio
Benedetti of the University of Turin, who showed that the placebo effect can be abolished by a drug,
naloxone, which blocks the effects of endorphins. Benedetti induced pain in human volunteers by
inflating a blood-pressure cuff on the forearm. He did this several times a day for several days, using
morphine each time to control the pain. On the final day, without saying anything, he replaced the
morphine with a saline solution. This still relieved the subjects’ pain: a placebo effect. But when he added
naloxone to the saline the pain relief disappeared. Here was direct proof that placebo analgesia is
mediated, at least in part, by these natural opiates.
H. Still, no one knows how belief triggers endorphin release, or why most people can’t achieve placebo
pain relief simply by willing it. Though scientists don’t know exactly how placebos work, they have
accumulated a fair bit of knowledge about how to trigger the effect. A London rheumatologist found, for
example, that red dummy capsules made more effective painkillers than blue, green or yellow ones.
Research on American students revealed that blue pills make better sedatives than pink, a colour more
suitable for stimulants. Even branding can make a difference: if Aspro or Tylenol is what you like to take
for a headache, their chemically identical generic equivalents may be less effective. Q37
I. It matters too how the treatment is delivered. Decades ago, when the major tranquilliser chlorpromazine
was being introduced, a doctor in Kansas categorized his colleague according to whether they were keen
on it, openly skeptical of its benefits, or took a let's try and see attitude. His conclusion: the more
enthusiastic the doctor, the better the drug performed. A recent survey by Ernst on doctor's bedside
manners turned up one consistent finding: Physicians who adopt a warm, friendly, reassuring manner are
more effective than those whose consultations are formal and do not offer reassurance. Q38
J. Warm, friendly and I reassuring are precisely what alternative treatment is all about,
of course. Many of the ingredients of that opening recipe-the physical contact, the
generous swaths of time, the strong hints of supernormal healing power-are just the kind of thing likely to
impress patients. It's hardly surprising then, that complementary practitioners are generally best at
moblishing,the placebo effect Q40, says Arthur Kleinman, professor of social anthropology at Harvard
University.
Questions 27-31
Complete each sentence with the correct ending. A-H below.
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
27 An appointment with an alternative practitioner D
28 An alternative practitioners explanation of their treatment A
29 If alternative practitioners have faith in their treatment, they H
30 Quite often, a patient's illness B
31 Conventional doctors are aware of the placebo effect and they G

A Should be easy to understand

B can improve without treatment
C can cost the patient less
D ought to last a minimum length of time
E can require a range of different products
F can be described as serious
G should give it greater recognition
H should be able to get a high income
Questions 32-34
Choose the correct letter A,B, C or D
Write the correct letter in boxes 32-34 on your answer sheet.
32 In the third paragraph, the writer says that the placebo effect
A works best in tablet form.
B is a new type of medical treatment.
C is trusted more by some patients than others.
D has a significant role in both alternative and conventional medicine.
33 A reference is made to anger and sadness in order to show that
A personal feelings can alter our physical condition
B some human behavior has no clear explanation
C placebos, like emotions, are experienced by everyone.
D people find some physical reactions hard to control
Questions 35-40
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading passage 3 ?
In boxes 35-40 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contracts with the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
35 Scientists now have enough information to understand how the placebo effect becomes active in
people NO
36 As a result of experiments, some painkillers have been taken off the market. Not Given
37 Individual preference can have an impact on the effectiveness of different
brands of headache tablet YES
38 Doctors expressed a range of views on the drug chlorpromazine when it was
first introduced. YES
39 Emst's study had a big influence on doctor's behavior with patients Not given
40 Alternative practitioners work in a way that is likely to trigger the placebo effect Yes