READ 01

Part 4: In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 1 – 7, read the
passage and choose from A - H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra paragraph that you do
not need to use. (7 points). From DHBB 2024.6 (L11) [1]
Hunter-Gatherer Blues
These days you can be sure that, whenever a scientist discovers a new wrinkle in the way the human mind
works, some sort of Darwinian exploration will not be far behind. Research has shown that, while people find
it easy to remember the direction of objects moving towards them or away from them, they have little recall
for the spin direction of rotating objects. The reason for this is that natural selection has never had cause to
equip us with such a memory mechanism.
1.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not ideologically opposed to such pat evolutionary answers, unlike many social
scientists who regard culture as all-powerful in determining how we think and behave. I just wonder whether
these Darwinian explanations help or hinder further scientific investigation. Indeed, as a practising
psychiatrist, I find myself wondering this more and more as I watch evolutionary thinking being repeatedly
used to explain the existence of mental illnesses and personality disorders.
2.

Thus, paranoia could be helpful because suspiciousness might be beneficial in environments that are not as
safe as they seem. Some forms of depression might exist because withdrawing from the social fray might
actually be a good thing when you're competing with people who could injure or kill you if you tried to assert
yourself. And even severe postnatal depression could have hidden Darwinian benefits, according to some
anthropologists.
3.

Are such explanations useful or harmful? Paradoxically, I think they are both, for reasons that can be
explained by looking at that other all-embracing approach to understanding behaviour, Freudianism. Freud,
of course, proposed that sexuality was the driving force of human behaviour. This finds more than an echo in
the evolutionary psychologists' view that we are trapped by sexual strategies to maximise the replication of
genes. Fread had us in thrall to repressed sexual memories and psychic energies spilling out of the
unconscious; evolutionary psychology has us in thrall to genes and innate neural mechanisms adapted to suit
the needs of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
 4.

Darwinian attempts to explain depression bear this out. Evolutionary psychology predicts, for example, that
older mothers giving birth for the first time should be less prone to postnatal depression than younger first-
time mothers, as their current infant could be their only chance to reproduce. In fact, older first-time mothers
are even more prone to postnatal depression.
5.

This suggests that you don't have to be depressed to realise that asserting yourself isn't worth it: although
their depression had apparently after, the treated rats still didn't bother, presumably because they thought they
would fail. Depressed people give up trying even when victory is clearly possible-that is precisely why
depression is so puzzling.
6.

Harmful, because, like theorising about the unconscious, evolutionary psychology might discourage
scientists from looking for more productive explanations for mental illnesses. Useful, because we already
know that many psychiatric patients can benefit greatly from being given a comprehensible account of their
otherwise frightening and confusing symptoms. For this purpose, why shouldn't Darwin be at least as
effective as Freud?
7.

The beauty of evolutionary psychology for patients is that it could help them to stop endlessly asking why.
For scientists, that is precisely its danger.
Missing paragraphs:
A Despite these shortcomings, evolutionary psychology, like psychoanalysis, is undeniably attractive
because of the apparent coherence and simplicity of the explanations it offers. And it's this appeal that I think
is both potentially useful and potentially harmful.
B There is a second echo: Freud produced ingenious explanations for behaviour, but backed away from
generating testable predictions that could confirm or falsity his hypotheses. He famously argued that, when a
patient vociferously rejected an analyst's interpretation, this was good evidence that it was right, and if the
patient agreed with the doctor's exposition, this also was evidence it was right. Well, evolutionary
psychology suffers from a related, albeit less extreme, form of the problem. It might seem to generate
testable predictions, but on close inspection you usually find some sort of circularity in the argument, or that
the predictions either offer no more insights than common sense or are plainly wrong. The evolution of the
human mind, alas, has left no fossils.
C The aggressive personality would have been the ideal choice as protector of the primitive community and
not marginalised as he or indeed she-is at present. Many "unacceptable" behaviours would have been of the
utmost value in the evolution of the human psyche. Regardless of how we view acts of aggression today, the
fact remains that they once played a vital role in our life-and-death struggle for survival.
D Think about it. Since largely abandoning Freud, all therapists have had to offer patients seeking
explanations is a hodge podge of one-off theories and speculations, some based on brain chemistry, some on
behaviour, and each specific to just a single condition or even symptom. At a stroke, evolutionary
psychology can provide patient and therapist with a unifying framework for thinking about all symptoms and
all mental illnesses. A woman suffering from postnatal depression might feel hugely relieved to be told that
her condition has an evolutionary explanation. Why should we deny her that relief?
E Our ancestors would obviously have needed to know whether an animal they were hunting was
approaching or retreating, but rotating objects would have been largely absent from the rough and tumble of
their lives. Ergo, we don't remember enough about rotation from past experiences to be able to intuitively,
say, pull a car out of a spin. We have to learn to do such things by role.
F And if other forms of depression really are the result of a neural adaptation designed to make some of us
keep our heads down when it would be dangerous to assert ourselves, you'd think antidepressants would
reverse this. In fact, no evidence to this effect has been found among laboratory rats given antidepressants. If
anything, the rats tried even less hard to pick fights with the dominant members of their group.
G There is a suggestion that, since the mothers most likely to suffer are those in bad relationships or tough
circumstances, postnatal depression is evolution's way of telling mothers not to waste valuable reproductive
effort investing in offspring who are unlikely to thrive. In other words, it's no senseless accident that severely
depressed mothers sometimes neglect or even kill their infants. They are doing it at the behest of genes
whose silent command is "don't bother with this one."
H If these conditions are so bad for us, goes the well-rehearsed logic of the Darwinian approach, why didn't
natural selection weed out the genes that make us vulnerable? Answer: a tendency to depression or paranoia
or whatever must have conferred some subtle survival benefit on our ancestors that kept the genes in the
pool. Identify those benefits and, hey presto, you have a rationale for the condition.
(Adapted from CPE Entry Tests 1)
Part 5. You are going to read an article about self-help books. For questions 96 –105,
choose from the sections A to E. The sections may be chosen more than once. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
How self-help books have changed the way we think
A. Over the last year, I've read a lot of popular non-fiction books, and I've noticed an
interesting trend: many incorporate some level of self-help writing. It doesn't matter if the
book is about neuroscience or running - they all seem to add in some type of life affirming
advice, a classic 'how to', or an inspirational conclusion about the topic discussed. Ever
since I read Barbara Ehrenreich's well-researched Bright-sided: How the relentless
promotion of positive thinking has undermined America, I have been wary of the self-help
and positive thinking movement. Ehrenreich's book shows how the current movement
comes from an American history split between two ways of going about things: one being
a 'pull-up-your-bootstraps' practicality and the other a na'fve belief that if you think it up,
you can do it. The most successful people, we believe, are able to do both of these things
well, and they don't give up in the process.
B. I am cynical about this way of thinking, especially after reading Ehrenreich's expose of
the positive thinking movement. There are a lot of gurus out there trying to get me to
spend money on things that may or may not help me perform better, get more productive
or succeed in life. There is always a danger that I'll spend my time and money on these
things and delay the work I could do on my own without experts guiding me. Yet I still
find myself drawn to these popular non-fiction titles. I read them because they confirm
things that I know about myself or help me see things I wouldn't have seen on my own. It's
human nature to want someone in an authority position to confirm something we already
know about ourselves. Sometimes, we need to feel like we've been given 'permission' to
move forward.
C. For example, I recently read Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop
talking by Susan Cain. In this book, Cain dives into the cultural and scientific reasons why
some people are introverted and concludes that we undervalue introverts by honouring
extroverts, yet introverts are the ones changing the world. She begins her book with some
convincing studies from sociology that show an 'introvert' is someone who gets energy
from being alone, and in a society that honours outward appearances, many introverts get
left behind. I'm an introvert, so I found myself agreeing with almost everything she said
throughout the book. But as I read through each chapter, the underlying theme became 'yes,
you, the introvert, can be successful too!' And that's when something started to occur to
me: this reads a lot like a self-help book. It might have scientific studies to back up the
ideas, but it ends by giving advice to introverts who feel left out in today's extroverted
world.
D. This move toward self-help could be an effect of internet culture. These books have
taken off in recent years, and many writers have pioneered the author-as-marketing and
self-help-guru approach to non-fiction. Or, it could be a result of our changing economy: if
you're not portraying yourself as happy, successful, and productive, you won't get noticed
(so we're told), and, as a result you'll be left behind. In order to be successful, we are
guided towards giving off the appearance of success. For example, writers are told to have
a 'platform' - a website, a social media strategy, a newsletter - in addition to churning out a
series of bestselling novels. But in order to have the bestselling novel, it helps to write a
lot, and that can only be done alone, away from the spotlight.
E. This model of the non-fiction book that is really a self-help book seems like it's here to
stay because it is incredibly successful. Even readers like me, who tend to be cynical and
guarded, find solace and comfort in a book that uplifts and confirms. What I hope is that
this approach to non-fiction won't lead to intellectual laziness, sloppy writing, or reductive
thinking. I also hope it doesn't lead to a group of 20- and 30-somethings who are too busy
reading books and articles about 'how-to-be-that' or 'the-science-of-this' that they stop
creating things that lead to the next revolution. That type of future is scarier to me than a
future filled with padded non-fiction bestsellers.
(Source: National Geographic Learning 2016)
In which section are the following mentioned by the author?
96. possible hypotheses about how a trend may have come about
97. a contrast between two different schools of thought
98. an attempt on the behalf of one author to back up ideas with evidence
99. his scepticism about the wisdom of paying too much attention to 'experts'
100. a conviction that the self-help genre is likely to remain popular
101. a dawning realization that a book's intention was different from what he had first
thought
102. a concern about the future implications of reading self-help books
103. a compulsion to try to find out more about who he is
104. his initial observation that there was a movement towards a particular type
of writing
105. an apparent contradiction in advice that is given
Part 4. For questions 86-95, read the extract taken from Darwin's book The Voyage of the Beagle and
choose the best answer (A, B, C or D). Write your answers (A, B, C or D) in the corresponding numbered
boxes.

That large animals require a luxuriant vegetation, has been a general assumption which has passed from
one work to another; but I do not hesitate to say that it is completely false, and that it has vitiated the
reasoning of geologists on some points of great interest in the ancient history of the world. The prejudice
has probably been derived from India, and the Indian islands, where troops of elephants, noble forests, and
impenetrable jungles, are associated together in every one's mind. If, however, we refer to any work of
travels through the southern parts of Africa, we shall find allusions in almost every page either to the desert
character of the country, or to the numbers of large animals inhabiting it. The same thing is rendered evident
by the many engravings which have been published of various parts of the interior. Dr. Andrew Smith, who
has lately succeeded in passing the Tropic of Capricorn, informs me that, taking into consideration the whole
of the southern part of Africa, there can be no doubt of its being a sterile country. On the southern coasts
there are some fine forests, but with these exceptions, the traveller may pass for days together through open
plains, covered by a poor and scanty vegetation.

Now, if we look to the animals inhabiting these wide plains, we shall find their numbers extraordinarily
great, and their bulk immense. We must enumerate the elephant, three species of rhinoceros, the
hippopotamus, the giraffe, the bos caffer, two zebras, two gnus, and several antelopes even larger than these
latter animals. It may be supposed that although the species are numerous, the individuals of each kind are
few. By the kindness of Dr. Smith, I am enabled to show that the case is very different. He informs me, that
in lat. 24', in one day's march with the bullock-wagons, he saw, without wandering to any great distance on
either side, between one hundred and one hundred and fifty rhinoceroses - the same day he saw several herds
of giraffes, amounting together to nearly a hundred. At the distance of a little more than one hour's march
from their place of encampment on the previous night, his party actually killed at one spot eight
hippopotamuses, and saw many more. In this same river there were likewise crocodiles. Of course it was a
case quite extraordinary, to see so many great animals crowded together, but it evidently proves that they
must exist in great numbers. Dr.Smith describes the country passed through that day, as 'being thinly covered
with grass, and bushes about four feet high, and still more thinly with mimosa-trees.' Besides these large
animals, every one the least acquainted with the natural history of the Cape, has read of the herds of
antelopes, which can be compared only with the flocks of migratory birds.

The numbers indeed of the lion, panther, and hyena, and the multitude of birds of prey, plainly speak of
the abundance of the smaller quadrupeds: one evening seven lions were counted at the same time prowling
round Dr. Smith's encampment. As this able naturalist remarked to me, the carnage each day in Southern
Africa must indeed be terrific! I confess it is truly surprising how such a number of animals can find support
in a country producing so little food. The larger quadrupeds no doubt roam over wide tracts in search of it;
and their food chiefly consists of underwood, which probably contains much nutriment in a small bulk.
Dr.Smith also informs me that the vegetation has a rapid growth; no sooner is a part consumed, than its place
is supplied by a fresh stock. There can be no doubt, however, that our ideas respecting the apparent amount
of food necessary for the support of large quadrupeds are much exaggerated. The belief that where large
quadrupeds exist, the vegetation must necessarily be luxuriant, is the more remarkable, because the converse
is far from true.

Mr.Burchell observed to me that when entering Brazil, nothing struck him more forcibly than the
splendour of the South American vegetation contrasted with that of South Africa, together with the absence
of all large quadrupeds. In his Travels, he has suggested that the comparison of the respective weights (if
there were sufficient data) of an equal number of the largest herbivorous quadrupeds of each country would
be extremely curious. If we take on the one side, the elephants hippopotamus, giraffe, bos caffer, elan, five
species of rhinoceros; and on the American side, two tapirs, the guanaco, three deer, the vicuna, peccari,
capybara (after which we must choose from the monkeys to complete the number), and then place these two
groups alongside each other it is not easy to conceive ranks more disproportionate in size. After the above
facts, we are compelled to conclude, against anterior probability, that among the mammalia there exists no
close relation between the bulk of the species, and the quantity of the vegetation, in the countries which they
inhabit.

(Source: https://www.majortests.com/sat/reading-comprehension-test07)

86. According to the author, the ‘prejudice’ has lead to ______.

A. errors in the reasoning of biologists

B. false ideas about animals in Africa

C. doubt in the mind of the author

D. incorrect assumptions on the part of geologists

87. The author uses information provided by Dr. Smith to ______.

A. supply information on quality and quantity of plant life in South Africa

B. indicate the presence of large numbers of animals

C. give evidence of numbers of carnivorous animals

D. A, B and C are correct

88. The flocks of migratory birds are mentioned to ______.

A. describe an aspect of the fauna of South Africa

B. indicate the abundance of wildlife

C. contrast with the habits of the antelope

D. suggest the size of antelope herds

89. The ‘carnage’ refers to the ______.

A. number of animals killed by hunters B. number of prey animals killed by predators

C. number of people killed by lions D. amount of food eaten by all species

90. To account for the ‘surprising’ number of animals in a ‘country producing so little food’, Darwin
suggests all of the following as partial explanations except ______.

A. food requirements have been overestimated

B. rapid regrowth of plant material

C. large area for animals to forage in

D. mainly carnivorous animals

91. The author makes his point by reference to all of the following except ______.
A. historical documents B. published illustrations

C. private communications D. recorded observations

92. Darwin quotes Burchell’s observations in order to ______.

A. describe a region of great splendor B. counter a popular misconception

C. account for a curious situation D. illustrate a well-known phenomenon

93. Darwin apparently regards Dr. Smith as ______.

A. reliable and imaginative B. observant and excitable

C. intrepid and competent D. foolhardy and tiresome

94. Darwin’s parenthetical remark indicates that ______.

A. Burchell’s data are not reliable

B. comparison of the weights of herbivores is largely speculative

C. Darwin’s views differ from Burchell’s

D. more figures are needed before any comparison can be attempted

95. ‘Anterior probability’ refers to ______.

A. what might have been expected B. ideas of earlier explorers

C. likelihood based on data from India D. hypotheses of other scientists

From: DHBB 2024.5 (L11)